Guangdong Shipbuilding Industry Takes Steady Steps in the New Year

Chen Jianan and Kuang Zhanting

According to the statistical data of the first three quarters of 2018, the three indicators of shipbuilding -- the completion of shipbuilding, new orders and handheld orders -- in Guangzhou area accounted for more than 90% of Guangdong Province's total, and the degree of industrial concentration was further strengthened. This shows that shipbuilding enterprises, through supplyside structural reform, adopted a series of measures such as de-capacity, merger and reorganization, etc., accelerated the survival of the fittest in the industry, and by combining the “visible hand” of the government with the “invisible hand”of the market, gradually eliminated some low-end production capacity, and made comprehensive improvement of industrial core competitiveness and sustainable development capacity.

In recent years, Guangdong shipbuilding enterprises have made an effort in the supply side and stepped up their investment in R&D, changed the single product structure, developed more hull form products, especially high technology and high value-added products, by building a series of national first ships and even the world's first high-tech and high-value ships, they have launched the brand of “Guangdong Shipbuilding”, further consolidated the leading position of Guangdong shipbuilding industry in the global market segment, promoted the transformation and upgrading of shipbuilding enterprises, and boosted the research and development and dissemination of supporting equipment in the shipbuilding industry.

From the point of view of the characteristics of shipbuilding industry,the main ship forms of batch construction are still the main source of economic benefits for each shipbuilding enterprise,and only through the construction of bulk ship type, can shipbuilding enterprises constantly adjust the management structure, improve production efficiency and improve shipbuilding level.

How to carry on the innovation to the batch ship type product,and walk out the new way of the high quality development on the basis of the traditional three main ship types? In recent years, Guangdong shipbuilding enterprises, while grasping the construction of high-end ships, have not relaxed the exploitation of the market potential of the main ship types, but have strengthened technological innovation, further rammed up their construction strength,and maintained their technical advantages in the traditional ship types. Guangdong shipbuilding enterprises have delivered environment-friendly ships to win the market praise. The world's first 1400TEU dual fuel container ship “North” built by CSSC Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. for the German shipowner is not only an environmentfriendly ship with low emissions,low energy consumption and other advantages, but also praised by the shipowner for the innovative storage tank design in the cabin and the high compatibility of container guide design to achieve good economy and practicability.The 114000 ton LR II oil product tanker “Tom Hilde” built by Guangzhou Shipyard International Co., Ltd for the Danish shipowner is also environmentally friendly.The tanker is equipped with ballast water treatment unit and desulphurization scrubber to meet the IMO Tier Ⅲ emission requirements.

The exploration of the intelligentization of the main ship form is another goal of Guangdong shipbuilding enterprises. The first intelligent ship “Da Zhi” of the world, which was built by Huangpu Wenchong, is the bulk carrier as one of the three main ship types-- 38800 DWT bulk carrier.The handy-size bulk carrier is operating in large quantities in the shipping market, the competition of the new ship market is very fierce,but the “Da Zhi” integrates the whole ship information sharing,the independent assessment and decision making, the ship and shore integrated technology,the whole ship intelligent technical index reaches the world advanced level. The delivery of the ship marks the new way of the innovation and development of Guangdong shipbuilding enterprises represented by Huangpu Wenchong.

At the beginning of the new year, Guangdong shipbuilding enterprises achieved a “good start”.

On January 7, Guangzhou Shipyard International’s two 75000 ton chemical / oil product tankers were named at the same time. On January 9, Huangpu Wenchong 13200 ton heavy crane first ship and 8400 ton heavy crane follow-up ship were named respectively. On January 11, a 29m traffic work boat designed by the CSSC Guangzhou Institute of Ship and Marine Engineering Design and Research and built by Jianglong Shipyard Technology Co., Ltd. for Nailingding Futian National Nature Reserve Administration of Guangdong Province -- “Shen Nature Reserve 003” was successfully delivered.

The reporter learned from the visit that Guangdong shipbuilding enterprises will continue to develop the market for oil tankers,feeder container ships and bulk carriers. For example, Guangzhou Shipyard International plans to persevere to enhance the technical competitiveness, enrich the main ship type products, especially expand the market share of conventional tanker types such as MR, LR Ⅰ and LR Ⅱ , and strengthen the shipbuilding and marine engineering equipment industry. Huangpu Wenchong focused on the development of the main shipbuilding market and vigorously undertook the major products. On the basis of the successful acceptance of 12x2038TEU container ships and 6x120000 DWT bulk carriers in 2018, Huangpu Wenchong promoted order receiving of the independent research ship forms that already had the conditions for order receiving. Yinghui Nanfang Shipbuilding (Guangzhou Panyu)Co., Ltd., which takes aluminum alloy high speed ship as its main product, has made a breakthrough in the new energy ship R&D,and will continue to strengthen the market development of green ships.

In the area of high-end ships, Guangzhou Shipyard International will combine with the requirements of accelerating the development of the cruise industry, take the passenger ro-ro, and other superior ship types as carrier, cultivate market competitiveness, step up ship type R&D, further upgrade the technical level, and speed up development of luxury passenger ro-ro ships, medium and small luxury cruise ships, LNG carriers,LPG carriers and other high valueadded ships. Huangpu Wenchong's electric marine dangerous goods emergency command ships, 1400TEU dual fuel container ship follow-up ships,the new type of full aluminum alloy professional wind power transportation and maintenance ship by Yinghui Nanfang, and the carbon fiber high speed passenger ship by Guangdong New Ship Heavy Industry Co., Ltd will all enhance the “Guangdong Shipbuilding” brand.In addition to innovative products,Guangdong shipbuilding enterprises also closely follow the wave of intelligent manufacturing. Guangzhou Shipyard International pledged to take intelligent manufacturing as the hand grab, rely on information technology means to promote the company's high quality development, and make use of new technologies of Industrial IOT, wireless network, enterprise cloud and intelligent manufacturing on the basis of steadily advancing the three digital platforms of design, construction and management to create a digital workshop.

Guangzhou Shipyard International’s new type of welding robot has been put into use recently and laid the foundation for the development of the deep-medium-channel immersed tube steel shell project and future intelligent manufacturing of the company.At the same time, Guangzhou Shipyard International is building a thin-sheet production line workshop that will be used in the segmentation of the luxury passenger ro-ro ships and small and mediumsized luxury cruise ships. On the basis of the original design of the production line, Guangzhou Shipyard International conducted an adaptive upgrade, which further enhanced the flexibility of the mechanical arm so as to meet the manufacturing conditions of the small section, and only 50 workers are required to operate in a section production line.

According to the requirements of the “Outlines of High Quality Development Strategy of China State Shipbuilding Industry Corporation”(2018-2050), Guangzhou will become the world's leading shipbuilding and marine engineering equipment industry and intelligent ocean technology innovation center. Longxue base will become CSSC’s large-scale marine equipment manufacturing base. Industry experts believe that this will provide an opportunity for the future high-quality development of Guangdong shipbuilding enterprises. In the new year, driven by leading enterprises, Guangdong shipbuilding enterprises will stick to the good tradition of “differential development, healthy competition”and strive to write a new chapter of high quality development.