China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) is wrapping up 2022 highlighting its successes at both growing its volume of new ships delivered during the year as well as growing its backlog despite global challenges. The company says based on preliminary statistics for the year that its new orders and existing backlog combined maintained CSSC’s position as the world’s leading shipbuilder.
They are reporting that the company’s multiple shipyard divisions in total delivered 209 ships in 2022. The latest delivery was a 1110,000 dwt LNG dual-fuel product tanker built by Guangzhou Shipbuilding International Co. which was delivered on December 22. With that handover, CSSC reports it completed just over 14 million dwt in 2022. It represents an eight percent increase in annual delivery volume.
They are highlighting significant challenges including the pandemic and extreme weather which impacted production. The shipyards were not exempted from China’s strict no Covid policy that was in place for most of 2022. At times they were forced to house employees in the yard and isolate operations from the surrounding community to maintain operations. However, the shipyards in Shanghai were forced to close at mid-day along with parts of the city being placed into lockdown.
After resuming work, CSSC reports the aim was to minimize the impact of the pandemic and to strive to complete their annual goals. The pace of shipbuilding resumed during the second half of 2022 as they aimed to meet their goals.
According to statistics, among the ships completed and delivered by China State Shipbuilding Corporation this year, dual-fuel ships accounted for a third of all the vessels (31.6 percent) and “mid-to-high-end ship types” accounted for just over half (56.8 percent) of all the vessels built. They highlighted a long list of firsts in dual-fuel, including an LNG dual-fuel powered 300,000-ton very large crude carrier (VLCC), another fitted with rigid sails, the world's first 209,000-ton Newcastlemax LNG dual-fuel power bulk carrier, the world's first 158,000-ton dual-fuel Suezmax crude oil tanker, China’s first 110,000-ton dual-fuel Aframax product oil tanker, and a 49,900-ton methanol dual-fuel chemical/product oil tanker.
With the increase in orders for dual-fuel ships, CSSC is also promoting its "two-in-one" new process and a new model of dual-fuel ship conventional sea trials and gas trials. They report after exploring the practice and application of this approach, they improved it and are now implementing it to shorten construction times.
Among the areas they are highlighting the shipyards’ first-mover status is with ultra-large container vessels. Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding and Jiangnan Shipbuilding they report successively delivered four 24,000 TEU ultra-large containerships which they refer to as "cargo kings." The ships were designed by the Chinese yards and are the largest containerships in the world based on TEU capacity. China continues to develop this class of ships including large vessels under construction for MSC and orders for COSCO. Across its six shipyards, CSSC has orders for 100 large containerships.
They are also highlighting China’s emergence as a cruise ship builder having floated the country’s first large domestically built cruise ship. The first ship is currently being outfitted while on August 8 China started construction of a second, larger cruise ship.
China is also increasing its position in building gas carriers, a sector traditionally dominated by the South Korean shipyards. As the global orderbooks for gas carriers set new records, Hudong-Zhonghua and Jiangnan Shipbuilding delivered two 174,000 cubic meter large liquefied natural gas carriers, two 80,000 cubic meter LNG carriers, and one 30,000 cubic meter LNG carrier. Jiangnan Shipbuilding and Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Group also won the first large-scale LNG carrier construction order and subsequent batch orders for the upcoming construction of 175,000 cubic meter, large-scale LNG carriers.
Going forward, China Shipbuilding Group says it will further strengthen the strategic operation management and control of the ship and sea business. Calling 2022 an extraordinary year, CSSC reports it will continue to focus on its main business while also expanding the space for the development of the shipbuilding industry.
