All of them do. Every LNG carrier from Chinese shipyards do this as standard.
Chinese shipbuilding industry
- Thread starter tphuang
- Start date
All of them do. Every LNG carrier from Chinese shipyards do this as standard.
There are many shipyards around the world, including in China, that closed in the last ten years due to a glut in shipping capacity and ship building. Ship building is like the fabs in the semiconductor industry --- capital intensive, easy to lose money, requires plenty of orders to survive. That's how the commercial shipbuilding industry in the US and UK got decimated over the decades in the first place.
Even shipyards in Korea are being consolidated because they are losing money, and Japan is well off from its peak during the '70s. Remember Hanjin? Their enormous shipyard in Subic Bay in the Philippines were closed.
Like semiconductor fabs, you cannot build shipyards with the huge 500 meter long plus drydocks to build the megamaxes overnight. These things take years to plan, sites specially selected and are massive infrastructure projects on their own right. The fear is that when you build the new shipyards, who is able to forecast that we might have a glut in ships and shipbuilding in the future and these new shipyards will end up having lost money once again. The shadow of the devastation caused by the glut some years ago is still with the shipping industry.
Likely for a while as many ships are being replaced. The replacement age of a commercial ship isn't as old as a warship, and its much less. So you get a rapid turnover. Tightening green regulations means dirtier, smokier ships are going to be retired sooner, which is also partly the reason why freight rates are rising due to the increased ship attrition. The higher prices of steel also incentives earlier ship retirement for scrapping.
So with the tightening regulations, this spurs new builds, or refitting older ships with scrubbers (something to take out the pollutants). There are a number of shipyards in China that specialize in the maintenance, repair and refit of ships, and they are busy.
It also depends on the shipowners, some of which are financial institutions themselves, can avail of loans for these newbuild orders. This points to the banks, and to the Chinese state banks, as they control the spigot for this.
You all have seen USN and PLAN hospital ships before, but have you seen an all civilian hospital ship? The design of this ship reminds me of the PLAN pennant 88 and 89 barracks ships.
The world's largest civilian hospital ship, the Global Mercy, has completed its sea trials and will be first deployed in Africa. The ship is a shining example when the world decides to get together to solve a common problem.
"The Global Mercy represents an international collaboration. With an overall length of 174-meters, a beam of 28.6 meters, with a Gross Tonnage of 37,000, the ship is a tailored Passenger Ship-class vessel. As the first of its kind, the ship has undergone construction at Tianjin Xingang Shipyard, with project management by AB of Gothenburg, Sweden, and construction design by of Finland. The French ship brokerage company (BRS) was instrumental in helping negotiate the contract."
The world's largest civilian hospital ship, the Global Mercy, has completed its sea trials and will be first deployed in Africa. The ship is a shining example when the world decides to get together to solve a common problem.
"The Global Mercy represents an international collaboration. With an overall length of 174-meters, a beam of 28.6 meters, with a Gross Tonnage of 37,000, the ship is a tailored Passenger Ship-class vessel. As the first of its kind, the ship has undergone construction at Tianjin Xingang Shipyard, with project management by AB of Gothenburg, Sweden, and construction design by of Finland. The French ship brokerage company (BRS) was instrumental in helping negotiate the contract."