Marine Log - October 2007 - (Page 35) BY NICK BLENKEY B SHIPBUILDING BARGAIN HUNTING ou’ve already “discovered” China’s shipbuilding capabilities. Where do you look next to get a fairly standard ship at a rock bottom price? Take your pick. There’s no short supply of Asian nations who are looking at China’s success, buying into starry-eyed projections of likely future shipbuilding demand and getting set to add to their shipyard capacity. Take Pakistan. Last month Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz chaired the first meeting of Pakistan’s newly formed Policy Board on Development of the Shipbuilding Industry. The board approved a work plan for the creation of two new large shipyards. The yards will be jointventures between the state-owned Karachi Shipbuilding & Engineering works and as-yet-unidentified “leading foreign shipyards.” Planned for Gwadar and Port Qasim, each yard would cover about 500 acres and would include two 600,000 dwt dry docks. Karachi Shipyard is currently limited to ships of 26,000 dwt. Formation of the policy board followed an August meeting at which Prime Minister Aziz and Vice Admiral Iftikhar Rao, managing director of Karachi Shipyard pitched Pakistan’s President General Pervez Musharraf on a vision of making Pakistan a leading shipbuilding nation. The Admiral reportedly said that Pakistan missed at least 10 orders, worth of billions of dollars, due to capacity restraints. As part of his presentation he projected that the next 50 years would see a growing demand for new ships that will increase from 30 million dwt this year to around 90 million dwt a year in 2055. CHINA EMERGES Whether shipbuilding demand reaches that 90 million dwt a year remains to be seen. What’s certain is that world shipbuilding has been enjoying a long running boom. One big beneficiary, has been China. By one measure, at least, China can now claim to be the world’s most competitive shipbuilding nation. According to the Chinese State Oceanic Administration, orders won by Chinese shipbuilders, in terms of deadweight tonnage, surged www.marinelog.com Y A Bourbon OSV takes shape in China 165% to 49.9 million dwt in the first half of the year, overtaking Korean competitors who booked 42.8 million dwt. However, the Koreans still booked more work than the Chinese if new orders are measured in terms of compensated gross tons (15.3 million cgt vs.13.8 million cgt according to one source). Still, we have reached the point where China is no longer so much an “emerging” shipbuilding nation as one that has already emerged. We looked at China’s industry in some detail in our previous issue. This month, let’s look at some of the shipbuilders who would like to become “the next China.” We’ve been running a poll on marinelog.com that asks “You’re ordering a ship tomorrow: where will you get the best price?” As we went to press 28% of respondents said China, 23% said Korea, 18 percent said Vietnam, 16% said India, 11% said “other” and just 5% said Japan. THE GRAIG EFFECT The U.K.’s Graig Group was one of the first marine groups from Europe to realize the potential of expanding shipbuilding outside of the traditional Asian shipbuilding countries—starting with China, where it has been involved with over 50 newbuildings on behalf of itself and major global shipowning groups. Graig provides a one-stop service, developing innovative owner- and charterer-friendly designs such as its Diamond bulk carriers (designed in partnership with Denmark’s Carl Bro), sourcing finance, choosing the right yard then contracting and overseeing the building of the ships. It can then go on to crew and manage the ships that it knows intimately through helping design and build them. Graig hasn’t allowed its Chinese successes to prevent it from expanding in other merging Asian centers, first to Vietnam and then to India. In 2004, Graig entered into an agreement with Vietnam’s state-owned shipbuilding corporation, Vinashin, for the construction of 15 DNV-classed, 53,000 dwt bulk carriers. The $322.5 million contract was split between Nam Trieu shipyard in Hai Phong building six ships and Ha Long shipyard in Quang Ninh building the remaining nine. The first two Vietnamese Diamond 53 handymax bulkers, the Graiglas and the Florence were delivered in July, and are the biggest and most advanced ships thus far built in Vietnam. Both vessels are now in service and reports from their operators are very favorable—and give some insights into how these Vinashin-built ships compare with their Chinese-built counterparts. Hayati Okumus, managing director of Istanbul-based Densan Shipping, says, “We are very, very happy with the ship, and we are looking forward to our second OCTOBER 2007 MARINE LOG 35 http://www.marinelog.com http://www.marinelog.com http://www.marinelog.com
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