With the accession to the WTO, many overseas ship companies will change the traditional way of trading by L/C, and choose to set up factories in China, which will bring challenges to domestic ship enterprises.
New aim to generate more revenue
China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC) is scheduled to receive orders for 1.4 million tons of ships this year, and to generate business income of over 16.1 billion yuan, soaring 12.6 percent over the year 2001, said sources with the CSIC's third work conference which started here on Monday.
CSIC is the largest group in China for the design, construction and sale of both naval and merchant ships, offshore structures and marine equipment.
This year, CSIC will focus on increasing the number of its high-tech ships, and expanding its overseas market, according to the conference.
Li Changyin, general manager of CSIC said that CSIC witnessed the slowdown of the world economy and decreased world trade last year, and it is hard for CSIC to get more ship orders with the drop in the number of new ships and ship prices as well in the international shipping market.
New opportunities and challenges
In addition, China has become a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and many overseas business partners will change the traditional way of trading by L/C, and choose to set up factories in China, which will bring challenges to domestic ship enterprises.
According to Li, in 2001, CSIC has achieved favorable revenues with total ship orders accounting for 4 million tons, worth 30 billion yuan. The total business income of CSIC was 14.3 billion yuan, up 13 percent over the previous year.
Li said CSIC has received a number of orders for the construction of 300,000 dwt VLCC, 150,000 dwt FPSO, RoRo ships and multi-purpose service vessels in 2001.
By the year 2005, the shipbuilding capacity will exceed 4 million tons, ship output will reach over 3 million tons and export revenues will top US$1 billion, said Li.
He added that CSIC will make efforts to strengthen international communication and cooperation so as to improve its international competition. The goal of CSIC is to become the strongest and largest supplier of the Chinese navy, and the leading shipbuilder in China's shipbuilding area, said Li.
（People?s Daily January 29, 2002）
