Shipyards face rough weather

Source: Xinhua | 2017-01-22

AFFECTED by waning global market demand and excessive industry capacity, China’s shipbuilders witnessed declining new orders and profits last year.

Shipbuilding output in 2016 was 35.3 million deadweight tons, marking a drop of 15.6 percent from 2015, said the China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry.

Orders for new ships fell 32.6 percent year on year to about 21.1 million DWT in 2016, the association said in a statement.

Ships built for export accounted for 94.7 percent and 77.2 percent of the accomplished shipbuilding output and new orders last year respectively, it said.

The combined business revenue of 1,459 large shipbuilders hit 697.6 billion yuan (US$101 billion) in the first 11 months of 2016, down 1.6 percent year on year, it added.