China's ship exports are under pressure

Since the beginning of this year, China's shipbuilding industry has maintained a good development momentum, the three major indicators of shipbuilding have continued to lead the international market share, and the export volume of ships has increased slightly. Li Yajun, industry director of the shipping branch of the China Chamber of Commerce for the import and export of mechanical and electrical products, predicted that China's shipping export volume this year will still increase compared with last year, and is expected to reach about 26.5 billion US dollars.
Export market more yuan
According to the data, from January to July this year, China's ship exports reached US $14.4 billion, up 5.8% year on year. In terms of export ship types, since the beginning of this year, bulk cargo ships, oil tankers and container ships still rank among the top three in China's ship exports. According to the data, from January to July 2022, among the total export volume of Chinese ships, bulk cargo ships accounted for 24.2%, oil tankers accounted for 16.3%, container ships accounted for 15.7%, drilling or production platforms during floating or diving accounted for 14.7%, motor multi-purpose ships accounted for 5.7%, light ships, fire boats, crane ships and other ships not mainly engaged in navigation accounted for 4.2%, and motor ro ships with a carrying capacity of 20000 tons or less accounted for 3.7%.
At present, Asia is still China's largest ship export market. According to the data, from January to July 2022, China's ship exports to Asia reached US $7.4 billion, up 6.8% year-on-year, accounting for 51.4%; China's ship exports to the European market were US $2.5 billion, down 9.2% year-on-year, accounting for 17.5%; China's ship exports to the African market reached US $2.07 billion, up 35.6% year-on-year, accounting for 14.4%. "Since the beginning of this year, with the continuous strengthening of international cooperation under the 'the Belt and Road initiative', especially the continuous expansion and deepening of China Africa economic and trade cooperation, Chinese shipping enterprises have continuously opened up new foreign markets, and China's ship export market has shown the characteristics of diversification. In addition, China's ship trade with Africa has also achieved rapid growth." Li Yajun said.
Export still faces challenges
Since the beginning of this year, China's ship exports have achieved a small growth, but still face many challenges. In this regard, Li Yajun put forward a variety of suggestions for the development of China's shipbuilding industry: in view of the high degree of outward orientation of the shipbuilding industry, Li Yajun believes that Chinese shipbuilding enterprises should attach great importance to the changes in the international situation and prepare for the rainy days. "At present, more than 90% of China's new ship orders are foreign trade orders. The domestic and international situation faced by the shipbuilding industry is complex and severe, and the increase of uncertain factors has seriously troubled the business activities of shipping enterprises. Therefore, it is suggested that shipping enterprises attach great importance to the changes in the international situation and make plans to deal with changes in exchange rate, raw materials, supply chain and other factors." Li Yajun said.
Chinese shipping enterprises should strengthen the maintenance of export market and customers, and make every effort to ensure the stability of orders and customers. The impact of the epidemic for more than two years and the outbreak of the war between Russia and Ukraine this year have had an impact on the market structure, customer structure, ship type structure and ship price of China's ship exports. Li Yajun suggested that Chinese shipping enterprises should pay close attention to customer needs and other internal and external changes, and adjust the market layout and response strategies as appropriate.
At the same time, Chinese shipping enterprises should fully prevent the risk of performance and ensure that the orders are delivered on time. "At present, most of China's shipping enterprises hold sufficient orders for new ships and have full shipbuilding tasks. Under such circumstances, enterprises should prevent the occurrence of situations that may affect the normal performance of the contract, ensure the timely arrival of materials and equipment, ensure smooth logistics, and prepare emergency plans to ensure the timely delivery of ships." Li Yajun said.
Under the guidance of the "double carbon" policy, Chinese shipping enterprises should seize the new opportunities brought by the development of "green ship" technology. "In recent years, orders for green power ships have shown explosive growth, including container ships, oil tankers, bulk carriers and other ship types. Therefore, it is suggested that Chinese shipping enterprises accelerate the research and development and innovation of green ship technology, seize the opportunity to seize the new opportunities of green ship development, improve the intelligent manufacturing capacity, and promote the transformation and upgrading of enterprises." Li Yajun said.
In addition, China's shipbuilding industry should also improve its internal skills and constantly improve its competitiveness. "We will continue to strengthen the introduction, training and improvement of leading talents and high-end design and R & D talents in the whole industry, intensify the efforts to tackle key problems of core equipment, systematically sort out the 'bottleneck' technical equipment in the shipbuilding industry, and provide stable supporting funds and resources; implement major technical equipment tackling projects and demonstration projects, improve the industrial foundation support system, and improve the quality of industrial development."