Feature 1 | CHINA Carving out niches
Simon Liang from Sinopacific tells Te Naval Architect the secrets to remaining profitable in the downturn
O
ne of China’s great success stories, shipbuilding-wise, Sinopacific Shipbuilding has
tapped up Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) for help in ship design. The first collaborative design is an 82,000dwt bulk carrier which will become the flagship in Sinopacific’s well-regarded Crown series of ships. “The development programme will
aim to exceed international standards in carrying efficiency, environmental protection, operability and controllability,” Sinopacific said in a release. Te chairman and CEO of Sinopacific,
Simon Liang, tells Te Naval Architect how his company has pursued a niche path to prosper during the downturn. “As a private shipbuilder, we are not
chasing large scale business blindly, we mainly focus on niche markets, areas with high entry levels and technology barriers, to demonstrate our added value,’’ says Liang. Meanwhile Naoki Ueda, Mitsubishi’s
deputy general manager for the ship and ocean engineering division, says that the company is looking to make more deals with Korean and Chinese yards for MHI bulk carrier designs following the ending of shipbuilding at its Kobe yard in June this year. “Production at Kobe has now transferred to nuclear power generation and submarine building,” he says. According to Ueda MHI is looking
to sell technology such as its Mitsubishi Air Lubrication System (MALS) along with its ship designs and the bulk carrier design can benefit with 7% net efficiency gains says Ueda. Sinopacific’s big orderbook allows it to
be one of very few yards in China not being forced to slash prices to keep workers busy. With close to 110 ships on order, worth
nearly US$4 billion, almost all its drydocks are busy through to end-2013. “In 2012, we don’t need to worry
about taking new orders as we have a good orderbook already,” Liang says. “Nowadays, people who invest are mostly
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strategic owners. What they care about is merely three aspects: quality, brand and performance, especially operational costs, that is fuel consumption. Tese are exactly where our strengths lie.” Bulk carriers and offshore support up
vessels make the majority of
Sinopacific’s offerings though the company is developing its own tanker design. The Shanghai-based company, which
employs over 20,000 people in its yards, is one of the fastest-growing companies in China’s shipbuilding industry. Te group has two shipyards - Zhejiang Shipbuilding and Yangzhou Dayang Shipbuilding. In September last year, Sinopacific
established a branch company in Fosnavaag Norway to assist the group company in further integrating its equipment supply chain, especially in the offshore field in an attempt to reduce the production cycle for high-end offshore support vessels in China. Te Norwegian branch company provides technical support and production/ management advice for the shipyard, serving as a contact between shipyard, shipowner and design company. Going forward the plan is to continue
to develop software, up marketing and spend more on research and development – all things that genuinely makes Sinopacific a stand out in China. Nearly 90% of Sinopacific’s delivered products are developed in house via its R&D team in Shanghai.
Tis February saw the first sea trial of
another exciting design by the yard, the Crown 63. DY4001, the first Crown 63, a 63,500dwt bulk carrier, completed all sea trials successfully on 18 February. The ship is one of 22 of this type set for delivery this year and, stacked with plenty of
green technology it a 13% fuel saving, giving it has received
classification society Bureau Veritas’s first Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) certificate in Asia. Some of these new ships will end up
being owned by Sinopacific’s Hong Kong subsidiary, Crown Ship, a shipowning/ trading vehicle. “Te position of Crown Ship is not to
be an owner,” stresses Liang. The vehicle will be used to better
understand the needs of owners, says Liang, as well as providing alternative financial solutions to clients. Crown Ship can provide some additional
pre-delivery funding, which will allow owners to make a payment before deliveries of less than 30%. Secondly, newbuildings can be directly owned by Crown Ship and owners will be given the opportunity to buy the ships on a resale basis. Tirdly, Crown Ship can arrange post-delivery loans for newbuildings and bareboat charter out the vessels to the buyer upon delivery on a medium to long-term basis, with an obligation to purchase the vessels when the contract expires. NA
The Naval Architect September 2012
China has cornered the OSV market and is now upping its technological capabilities
including this series for Bourbon by Sinopacfic
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