Domestic

Jiangsu Rongsheng bags Oman order

By Tong Hao (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-23 08:01

Jiangsu Rongsheng Heavy Industries Co, the country's biggest private shipbuilder, said it had won an order to build four vessels worth $484 million for a client in Oman, the biggest foreign order by a Chinese shipyard this year.

Jiangsu Rongsheng will build four very large ore carriers of 400,000 dead weight tons (DWT) each for Oman Shipping Co, a State-owned shipping operator in Oman, according to Lei Dong, director of president office of Rongsheng.

The vessels will be delivered by the end of 2011 or beginning of 2012.

The deal is also the second largest in terms of value Chinese shipbuilders clinched so far this year, only next to a $2 billion order won by Zhoushan Jinhaiwan Shipyard Co Ltd from a Chinese shipping company.

Jinhaiwan Shipyard Co, a private shipbuilder in Zhejiang province won an order to build 30 bulk cargo ships for Grand China Logistics Group, totaling 4.12 million DWT.

The vessels will be delivered from 2010 to 2012, according to media reports.

Contract value of the agreement exceeds $2 billion, which is the largest order among shipyards in China during the first six months.

But industry analysts say such remarkable new orders do not mean recovery of shipbuilding industry in China.

"New orders like that are rare among Chinese shipyards and they cannot be interpreted as a sign of the industry recovery. Many other shipyards in China have received zero new orders this year. Besides, the shipping industry which has a close tie to shipbuilding industry still remains in a gloomy situation," said Zhang Guangqin, president of China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry.

From January to May, new orders placed with the 1,791 major shipbuilders in China decreased by 96 percent year-on-year to 1.18 million DWT, among which 190,000 DWT were placed in May, according to statistics form the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

By the end of May, orders in hand decreased by 6 percent to 192.28 million DWT over the same period last year, the ministry said.

As the second largest shipbuilding country in the world, China enjoyed a rapid growth since 2005. However, the industry lost steam during the second half of 2008 due to the global financial crisis. Zhang estimated earlier that the industry would not recover until two or three years later.