Mainland shipyards plan to expand their 5 per cent share of the world shipbuilding market to 10 per cent by 2000 as part of a long-term plan to dominate the world market within 15-25 years, according to the China Daily Business Weekly.
The China State Shipbuilding Corp (CSSC) was targeting annual turnover of 30 billion yuan (about HK$27.88 billion) and output of three million deadweight tonnes (dwt) in 2000, the report said.
Most of the expansion was forecast to come from Europeans, who found Chinese shipyards offered similar quality to their South Korean and Japanese rivals, but at lower prices.
The CSSC Dalian yard recently won an order for two oil-product tankers from Denmark's A.P. Moeller. The firm said the shipyard was chosen because of its good design specification and competitive pricing.
In the second half of last year, mainland shipyards won 14 tanker orders with 545,700 dwt - equivalent to 6 per cent of the world's orders for tankers and achieved despite a lack of facilities to build very large crude carriers. Half of the orders were from European owners.
China was ranked third behind Japan and South Korea, but its cost advantages would prevail as it closed gaps in technology and management quality, CSSC official Yang Ye said, adding that Chinese labour costs were just 5 per cent of those in Japan.