Dalian ship exports expanding

Foreign shipowners are increasingly placing new ship orders with shipyards in Dalian, Liaoning province, driving the city's ship exports to 49.38 billion yuan ($7.4 billion) in the first three quarters, up 177 percent year-on-year, Dalian Customs said.

Leading local yard Hengli Heavy Industry's new ship order book extends through 2030.

On Dalian Changxing Island, two dual-fuel ultra-large container ships were floated out of the No 3 dry dock, while another three carriers departed from the No 1 dock in sequence on Oct 16.

Chen Hanlun, director and general manager of Songfa — Hengli Heavy Industry's listed parent — said at a conference that the company has received a cumulative order for over 600 vessels.

George Prokopiou, founder of Greece's Dynacom Group, recalled at the conference that his companies have placed 69 vessel orders with Hengli across multiple ship classes, including 16 very large crude carriers, since buying the first VLCC built by the yard, with 16 already delivered.

"What is impressive is the quality, the punctuality and the good cooperation with our team," he said, adding that post-delivery support — including spare parts supply and technical advices — has deepened trust between builder and customer.

Alongside Hengli, State-owned shipbuilders Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co, Dalian COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry Co and Dalian COSCO KHI Ship Engineering Co continue to anchor the high-end vessel and offshore refit segments in Dalian's shipbuilding-related cluster.

Of Dalian's 137.21 billion yuan in electromechanical exports in the first three quarters, ships alone accounted for more than a third.

Dalian, as a key transportation hub in Northeast Asia, has a long history and solid foundation in the shipbuilding sector, said Li Yanqing, executive vice-chairman of the China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry, at the opening ceremony of the 17th China Dalian International Shipbuilding, Marine Equipment and Offshore Engineering Exhibition on Wednesday.

"In the first nine months, Dalian ranked first among Chinese cities in shipbuilding completions, new orders and order backlog, with year-on-year growth of 169 percent, 349 percent and 134 percent, respectively. They're all significantly higher than the national average," Li said.

Yao Huaming, mayor of Dalian, said that led by the four major shipbuilding enterprises, the city has clustered more than 100 upstream and downstream support companies and formed a complete industrial chain covering design, construction, repair, support services and experimental research.

"The total output value of the city's shipbuilding and marine engineering equipment industry is expected to exceed 100 billion yuan this year," Yao said.