Greater ChinaShipyards

Report claims less than one in three of Yangzijiang’s ships under construction are profitable

A new report from Singapore investment bank OCBC gives an idea at the scale of losses across the Chinese shipbuilding sector.

The report focuses on just Singapore-listed Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, China’s largest private yard, but can be seen as ominous for many other yards in the People’s Republic who are less commercially savvy than Yangzijiang.

Out of the 123 vessels in Yangzijiang’s orderbook, OCBC estimates that only 40 are profitable while the rest are “challenged” in terms of profitability.

Yangzijiang, which has tended to focus on boxships and bulkers, is looking to diversify its orderbook to add more LNG carriers, OCBC reported. The yard delivered its first two 27,500 cu m LNG carriers last year.

Sam Chambers

Starting out with the Informa Group in 2000 in Hong Kong, Sam Chambers became editor of Maritime Asia magazine as well as East Asia Editor for the world’s oldest newspaper, Lloyd’s List. In 2005 he pursued a freelance career and wrote for a variety of titles including taking on the role of Asia Editor at Seatrade magazine and China correspondent for Supply Chain Asia. His work has also appeared in The Economist, The New York Times, The Sunday Times and The International Herald Tribune.
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