Zhong Mao

Against the background of the spreading COVID-19 in many parts of China in the first quarter, CSSC China Shipbuilding Trading Co Ltd(CSTC) overcame the epidemic impact,proactive in responding, strengthened continuous tracking of the regional market and ship-type market, and made a good start in the first quarter.CSTC signed more than 6 million DWT in shipbuilding and offshore engineering business, high-end ships accounted for more than 90%, with large LNG carriers, medium and large container ships, and a batch of greens ships that conform to the global energy conservation and emission reduction green development requirements becoming the main ships signed in the first quarter.

New breakthroughs in large LNG ship market layout

On January 7 this year, CSTC and Hudong Zhonghua signed a contract to undertake CNOOC medium and long-term FOB resource supporting LNG carrier project for six large 174,000 m3 LNG carriers. In March,CSTC and Jiangnan Shipbuilding undertook ABNOC two 175,000 m3 LNG carriers, CSTC and China Merchants undertook 2+2 175,000 m3 LNG carriers, signing 10+2 large LNG vessels in the first quarter.

Guided by the country's “carbon peaking” and “carbon neutrality”goals and energy strategy, China surpassed Japan to become the world's largest LNG importer in 2021. In order to implement the national “dual-carbon” strategy and meet the market demand, CSSC formulated a strategy of accelerating the construction capacity of large LNG ships in early 2022, and worked with domestic energy giants to build China's LNG transport industry chain, further enhance international competitiveness and accelerate the cultivation of new growth points. In accordance with the transformation and development deployment of CSSC shipbuilding and offshore engineering service industry,CSTC gave full play to its role as an industry platform, strengthened the capacity of serving shipyards, helped Jiangnan Shipbuilding and DSIC achieve important breakthroughs in undertaking large LNG carriers for the first time, and jointly ushered in a new situation of participating in the international market competition of LNG ships.

New and old shipowners' markets go hand in hand

Since last year, the world's major liner companies have focused on upgrading their fleet, releasing a number of large orders in the large and super-large container ship market. The last-year fairly good container shipping market continued in Q1, and the orders released by the market drew close to the medium and large container ship market.

During this period, CSTC overcame the epidemic impact,actively collaborated with superior resources of design units, shipyards and engine equipment suppliers within the system, gave full play to complete industrial chain advantages of the system's marketing,design, construction, equipment manufacturing and service integration, kept up with needs of old ship owners and expanded cooperation with them while actively exploring new markets,docking new customers, working with shipyards to undertake a batch of 7000TEU, 14000TEU,16000TEU container ship orders,further consolidating CSSC brand position and market share in the container ship market.

In the new ship owner market,Taiping Shipping Services, the largest local container liner company in Singapore, returned to the new shipbuilding market after seven years in the first quarter, CSTC and Jiangnan Shipbuilding took the owner’s order for four 14000TEU container ships, using the dual-fuel container ship type independently developed and designed by Jiangnan Shipbuilding. Subsequently, CSTC and Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding took the order for two 7000TEU container ships from the Thai line RCL, which was the first time that the owner had ordered a new ship at a CSSC shipyard. The new customer orders both came from the Southeast Asian container ship lines, which helped CSSC container ship construction business make new breakthroughs in the Southeast Asian market.

At the same time, CSTC and DSIC worked with the world's largest independent owner of container ships -- Danaos, successfully undertaking the new shipowner’s 2+2 7100TEU new container ship construction project. This was the Greek shipowner’s resumption of joint effort with a CSSC shipyard after ten years and the first time it placed an order in DSIC. The signing makes DSIC accumulative undertaking in the field reach 10,maintain among the first echelon of the global medium container ship newbuilding market.

In the domestic shipping market,CSTC worked with DSIC to undertake an order for two 65,000 DWT bulk carriers from CITIC Financial Leasing Co Ltd. The project is the first time for CITIC Financial Leasing to place a newbuilding order in the operational leasing mode. After completion and delivery, the ships will be leased to domestic firstclass shipping companies to serve the transport guarantee of national energy, mainly operating on domestic coastal routes and along the Yangtze River. At the same time, Shanghai CSTC International Trade, a subsidiary of CSTC, signed the supply contract of re-liquefaction unit of 12 LNG carriers with Hudong Zhonghua through BVI platform, guarding the procurement node of key equipment of major projects and ensuring the production and construction plan of brother shipyard during the epidemic period.

In the offshore engineering market, CSTC assisted Wuhan Marine Machinery Co Ltd to successfully sign the construction project of the 1,600-ton jack-up offshore wind power installation platform with Huaxi Offshore Wind Power Engineering.The project team overcame the impact of the dispersed epidemic in the first quarter, visited the ship owner in time to share the project information when the epidemic eased, analyzed the project situation together with the shipyard, and signed the contract between the two parties successfully through joint efforts.

Meanwhile, the offshore engineering market project team promoted other projects under discussion, and promoted relevant negotiations through various ways under the epidemic normality, so as to ensure the active promotion of key projects and lay a foundation for subsequent successful signing.