U. S . N AVA L WA R C O L L E G E CHINA MA
A Comprehensive Survey of China’s

Dynamic Shipbuilding Industry

Commercial Development and Strategic Implications

Gabriel Collins and Lieutenant

Commander Michael C. Grubb,

U.S. Navy

CHINA MARITIME STUDIES INSTITUTE

U.S. NAVAL WAR COLLEGE

Newport, Rhode Island

www.nwc.navy.mil/cnws/cmsi/default.aspx
Naval War College

Newport, Rhode Island

Center for Naval Warfare Studies

China Maritime Study No. 1

August 2008

President, Naval War College

Rear Admiral Jacob L. Shuford, U.S. Navy

Provost/Dean of Academics (Acting)

William R. Spain

Dean of Naval Warfare Studies

Robert C. Rubel

Director of China Maritime Studies Institute

Dr. Lyle J. Goldstein

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Foreword

I am pleased to introduce this first in an ongoing series of China Maritime Studies.

These studies, which we hope to publish on a quarterly basis, form a major research

product of the Naval War College’s new China Maritime Studies Institute (CMSI).

Recognizing that China’s rapid growth is a key factor in understanding the emerging

twenty-first-century global order, Navy leadership directed that CMSI be created at the

Naval War College (NWC) in October 2006. The objective was not to create another

China institute—of which many fine examples exist in academia—but rather to create

a China maritime studies institute. The intention was to give this new institute the

focus required to succeed and thereby fill an emerging gap. It is important to note that

CMSI is a scholarly research organization and CMSI scholars routinely share their

work with Chinese colleagues, military and civilian. In many respects China and the

United States are strategic partners as well as competitors, so this practice is quite

appropriate. While prudence dictates gaining a good understanding of Beijing’s maritime and naval capabilities, there is a clear incentive and potential for generating trust

and cooperation with China in the domain of maritime security and development.

Indeed, the concept of maritime partnership between Washington and Beijing was precisely the theme of our third annual CMSI conference back in December 2007.

CMSI draws upon the deep regional expertise of twelve faculty members with skills in

Mandarin Chinese. Being located within NWC, CMSI has continuous access to a range

of Navy, joint, and international operational experts, including the College’s students.

The institute’s activities include an annual conference, a monthly speaker series, and

support for faculty research in China. CMSI also provides support for Navy and joint

commands. The quality of CMSI research is proven. For example, a book by CMSI

scholars entitled China’s Future Nuclear Submarine Force (Naval Institute Press, 2007)

was described in the January 2008 edition of Jane’s Navy International as “the benchmark unclassified study on the development of the PLAN’s [People’s Liberation Army

Navy’s] sub-surface combat capability.”

In developing the new institute’s research agenda, we recognize that Chinese naval

development is following in the wake of China’s clear emergence as a commercial maritime power. Indeed, the close connection between military and commercial maritime

power was highlighted by Alfred Thayer Mahan when he taught at the Naval War College more than a century ago. Therefore, it is appropriate to launch this series—an
ongoing intellectual exploration into the origins, goals, and means of Chinese maritime

development—with a comprehensive survey of the dynamic Chinese shipbuilding sector and its commercial and strategic implications.

In closing, I wish to congratulate the two authors, one of whom performed this

research as a student at NWC, on their outstanding work. Indeed, this study has already

had an impact on important deliberations in Washington, D.C. We will be grateful for

your feedback on this and the studies that follow in this unique series.

ROBERT C. (BARNEY) RUBEL

Dean, Center for Naval Warfare Studies

U.S. Naval War College

Newport, R.I.

vi CHINA MARITIME STUDIES
The opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not reflect the

official assessments of the U.S. Navy or any other entity of the U.S. government.

A Comprehensive Survey of China’s

Dynamic Shipbuilding Industry

Commercial Development and Strategic Implications

Executive Summary

China’s dynamic shipbuilding sector now has the attention of key decision makers

in Washington. During testimony before the Armed Services Committee of the

House of Representatives on 13 December 2007, Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Admiral Gary Roughead observed, “The fact that our shipbuilding capacity and industry is

not as competitive as other builders around the world is cause for concern.” Pointing directly to Beijing’s new prowess in this area, he concluded, “[China is] very competitive on

the world market. There is no question that their shipbuilding capability is increasing

rapidly.”1

The present study aims to present a truly comprehensive survey of this key sector of the growing Chinese economy. In doing so, it will provide decision makers and analysts with the clearest possible picture of the extraordinary pace of activity now under

way in China’s ports, as well as the commercial and strategic implications flowing from

this development.

China’s rapidly growing shipbuilding industry has focused primarily on commercial

vessels. However, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) government classifies shipbuilding as a strategic sector and has limited foreign shareholdings in Chinese shipyards and marine diesel and crankshaft factories to 49 percent. Viewed through a

commercial lens, these actions raise World Trade Organization (WTO) compliance

questions. Strategically, this affirms that Beijing sees a strong shipbuilding industry,

upon which it is able to exert considerable influence, as a central pillar in China’s maritime development.

China’s shipbuilding industry benefited greatly from Deng Xiaoping’s defense conversion program. Compared to other defense-related enterprises, such as aerospace, the

Chinese shipbuilding industry has enjoyed a much smoother transition to international competitiveness. This stems from timing and structural advantages. The Sixth

Ministry of Machine Building was “corporatized” into the China State Shipbuilding

Corporation in 1982, giving the sector nearly twenty-five years to grow into the force

that it is today. Shipbuilders have also enjoyed a relatively high degree of bureaucratic
freedom, a broad shift toward commercial shipbuilding, an increasing wave of opinion

that China must become a maritime power, early experience in the international ship

market (first delivery in 1982), substantial domestic ship demand (which served as a

jumping-off point into the intensely competitive international marketplace), and access

to a huge and low-cost labor pool.

China’s two state-owned shipbuilders (the China State Shipbuilding Corporation

[CSSC] and the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation [CSIC]) report to the State

Council via the State Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission

(SASAC). Both companies are working to reform their business and management

structures and are also raising capital, as well as their international profiles, by selling

stock to the public. Ongoing changes include increased emphasis on hull-block construction, investment in major new “greenfield” shipyards, and bolstering of Chinese

firms’ ability to produce marine diesels and gas turbines—all of which have military

implications. Other areas of technological focus include enhancing systems integration

abilities and fostering the growth of China’s currently weak ship-subcomponents

industry, lest China become merely a “world-class hull builder.”

The Chinese shipbuilding industry is also increasingly focused on human capital. Chinese

universities and maritime academies now produce nearly 1,500 marine engineers and

naval architects per year, roughly seven times the number of such graduates from U.S.

institutions. The large Chinese yards are also gradually emphasizing sound HSE (health,

safety, and environment) practices, an important priority for many foreign ship buyers.

Chinese yards are additionally realizing that the ability to hire and fire workers freely is an

important tool that will allow them to build more productive workforces; Chinese yards’

per-worker production ($9,000) is an order of magnitude lower than Japanese ($550,000)

and South Korean ($480,000) yards’ figures. Finally, the large and growing number of

Chinese involved with and exposed to the maritime industry creates a “strategic reserve”

of knowledge and experience upon which the country can draw if sustained international

tension ever creates the need to expand military ship production rapidly.

Chinese yards’ have thus far primarily produced low-complexity ships, such as smaller

tankers and bulk carriers (see figure 1). That said, the industry is now pushing to increase

production of “high value” ships, including very large crude carriers (VLCCs), large container ships, cruise ships, floating production, storage, and off-loading units (FPSOs), and

liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers. Some sources note that China hopes to have thirty

VLCC-capable building docks by 2015. China’s official goal by 2015 is twenty-four million

tons* of production capacity (35 percent of global capacity), which would make the PRC

the world’s number-one shipbuilder.

2 CHINA MARITIME STUDIES

* Metric units are used throughout this paper unless otherwise noted (1 metric ton = 1,000 kg = 0.98

imperial long tons = 2,204.6 lbs).
While CSSC and CSIC garner the lion’s share of international attention, smaller

“beach” and provincial yards are grabbing an increasing share of ship orders from

Greek and other buyers seeking the lowest possible costs and trying to secure berths

that may not be open at state yards. The quality of ships built at smaller yards varies

widely; several hundred such yards were closed down or otherwise punished during a

2005 “campaign against low-quality ships.”

Commercial priorities are likely to dominate China’s shipbuilding industry for the time

being. China’s growth could lead to a bifurcated global ship market, wherein China

dominates low-complexity ship construction and South Korea dominates the highcomplexity end (LNG carriers, cruise ships, etc.). Under such a scenario, Japanese and

European yards could lose badly.

If the global shipping sector suffers a significant slowdown, China’s rapid and massive

capacity buildup could leave Chinese builders in a serious financial bind that government orders probably could not fully offset.

The activities of the massive new Longxue (Guangdong), Haixiwan (Qingdao), and

Changxing Island (Shanghai) shipyards will be key indicators of China’s future intent

with respect to balancing military and commercial shipbuilding. Each yard is more

than 1,200 acres in size and if one were devoted to military shipbuilding, capacity

would rise substantially from the current level. Alternatively, commercial operations at

today’s Jiangnan shipyard (Shanghai) could all be moved to Changxing Island and

Jiangnan dedicated to military ship production, which would allow the yard to be optimized for series production of selected warships. Thus far, Guangdong Longxue

appears to be dedicated to commercial ship production; the yard was set to specialize in

building 230,000-dwt ore carriers, 308,000-dwt VLCCs, 82,000-dwt bulk carriers, and

A COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY OF CHINA’S DYNAMIC SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRY 3

Figure 1. Chinese Ship Type Breakdown
76,000-dwt crude/product tankers, as well as drilling rigs and other offshore energy

equipment when it opened in March 2008.2

In addition, during wartime merchant ships might be adapted to serve as auxiliaries,

amphibious assault ships, and minelayers. Accordingly, the growing Chinese-flag merchant fleet represents a degree of latent military potential. Indeed, Chinese analysts

have closely examined Britain’s rapid conversion of forty-nine merchant vessels to military roles during the 1982 Falklands War. It should also be noted that the Chinese government maintains a vessel tracking system known as China Ship Reporting System, or

“CHISREP,” to which all Chinese-flag merchantmen must ostensibly report, no matter

their location. Knowledge of where these vessels are at all times across the globe could

have military utility during a time of conflict.

Other barometers of future Chinese strategic naval intent include

• Construction of covered building facilities for submarines and warships

(particularly if used to build SSNs)

• Construction of the auxiliaries required by a blue-water navy (long-range oilers and

resupply ships), and increased at-sea replenishment exercises

• Mass production of amphibious assault vessels that could be used in an invasion of

Taiwan

• Acquisition of ship tenders for long-range repairs or acquisition of overseas port

rights, particularly in the Indian Ocean region.

A fundamental conclusion of this study is that China’s ambitious drive for new and

world-premier shipbuilding capabilities is not at present primarily driven by military

factors but rather by commercial incentives. As determined by conventional economic

theory, Beijing has a strong comparative advantage in shipbuilding, and its emergence

in this sector is therefore natural, to a large extent. Nevertheless, strategists around the

Asia-Pacific, as well as in Washington, need to be aware of the concern highlighted by

the CNO in his December 2007 testimony on Capitol Hill. China’s dynamic commercial development in shipbuilding is presently adding very extensive latent maritime

capacity that Beijing could draw upon in a future maritime rivalry or conflict. Such an

outcome is not inevitable, especially given the many promising signs in China’s “new

diplomacy.” Still, the risks that accompany present economic tendencies need to be

noted, fully analyzed, and debated by experts.

4 CHINA MARITIME STUDIES
Introduction

The staggering growth in PRC commercial shipbuilding output and advances in indigenous naval construction underscore shipbuilding’s growing role as a key driver in

China’s economic and military development, and they are indicative of a rising maritime culture within China. Chinese yards now account for roughly 20 percent of the

global shipbuilding market, with an estimated 80 percent of their gross output slated

for export customers.3

Chinese seaborne trade is expected to reach one trillion dollars

annually by 2020, much of which will be carried on Chinese-built, -owned, and -operated merchant vessels.4

Building a foundation for this comprehensive maritime growth,

the PRC central government recently affirmed shipbuilding as a “strategic industry” in

need of “special oversight and support,” reinforcing the central role that shipbuilding

will play in future Chinese maritime development.5

Over the next five to ten years, Chinese analysts see their nation’s shipbuilding industry as one that will become a world

leader, rectifying its present weaknesses in innovation, subcomponent manufacture,

systems integration, and yard management.6

Considering these developments, this study will briefly trace the history of shipbuilding in China, focusing on how the industry transformed itself from a defense-focused,

socialist monolith into a thriving commercial enterprise. The current structure and

output of the PRC shipbuilding industry will be reviewed, highlighting the increasingly

complex mix of control and influence among the PRC State Council, the Central Military Commission, local authorities, private entities, and international corporations

within the Chinese shipbuilding industry. The second half of the study will present a

more detailed examination of how China’s impressive commercial shipbuilding growth

may, or may not, translate into similarly significant improvements in Chinese naval

development. Finally, the strategic aspects of PRC shipbuilding development will be

discussed, and indicators and implications of a possible commercial-to-military shift in

PRC shipbuilding priorities will be offered.

Historical Evolution

In May 1982 the Fifth National Congress eliminated the Sixth Ministry of Machine

Building and established the China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) in its place.

More than a bureaucratic name change, this decision “corporatized” all state shipbuilding activities under the CSSC and authorized a degree of market-based economic

autonomy unprecedented under the communist economic system. CSSC’s mandate

included direct control of 153 organizations that ranged from shipyards to technical

research and design universities; authority over virtually all military and commercial

shipbuilding and repair; power to conduct joint ventures with foreign companies; and

A COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY OF CHINA’S DYNAMIC SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRY 5
ability to negotiate export sales, through the newly established China Shipbuilding

Trading Company (CSTC).7

Viewed broadly, the shipbuilding development strategy chosen by CSSC during this

early period was similar to that which had propelled Japan to remarkable shipbuilding

successes in the 1950s–60s and South Korea in the late 1970s–90s. China targeted shipbuilding as a pillar industry for national economic development and growth in other

heavy industrial sectors (such as steel); it leveraged labor cost advantages, imported

critical technology and manufacturing best practices from world shipbuilding leaders,

and targeted export sales as a means of obtaining hard currency to fuel further economic development.8

Despite these general similarities, however, parallels with a Japanese or Korean development model begin to break down when viewed more closely.

The economic structures of the Japanese keiretsu and Korean chaebol business networks

differ from each other, and were both dissimilar to the Chinese jituan-style business

conglomerate that took shape in CSSC. Furthermore, Japanese and Korean shipbuilders

were fundamentally capital-accumulating corporations, operating in regulated market

economies, from the very start of their development. Conversely, CSSC remained

answerable to the central government and operated as a rare “corporate” entity within

a communist planned economy struggling to transform itself.9

6 CHINA MARITIME STUDIES

Figure 2. A Historical Review of Chinese Shipbuilding
Regardless of the degree to which foreign development models were used, the ability of

the Chinese shipbuilding industry to negotiate the process of defense conversion is

noteworthy. This is especially so considering the relative lack of success that Chinese

aerospace and other formerly defense-focused industries have shown in attempting to

enter commercial markets. There are several key reasons for the effective transformation of Chinese shipbuilding. First, economic liberalization and bureaucratic freedom

of movement were afforded to CSSC well before they were to other industrial sectors.

While CSSC was formed in July 1982, the Ministry of Aerospace Industry was not

“corporatized” into the China Aviation Industry Corporation (AVIC) until 1993.10 By

that time CSSC had largely completed its shift to a commercial focus, with 80 percent

of its output dedicated to the civil sector in 1992 and many subsidiaries out of military

production altogether.11

Second, the shift from a military to commercial focus for Chinese shipbuilding was

aided by the relatively small technological hurdles involved. The Luda-class destroyers,

Jianghu-class frigates, and Ming-class submarines built in the early 1980s were only

modest improvements on Soviet designs dating back to the 1950s, technologically

closer to commercial vessels than to military ships by Western standards of the day.

Furthermore, most shipyards engaged in military construction already had at least

some experience in building commercial ships.

Third, CSSC’s early commitment to the international market provided critical exposure

to commercial business practices and experience in dealing with foreign companies.

CSSC moved quickly to obtain foreign assistance in modernizing its shipyards for commercial production, signing partnerships with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and British

Shipbuilders to upgrade the Jiangnan and Dalian shipyards. These technical assistance

agreements built upon successful license production deals signed with major Western

marine diesel engine manufacturers in the 1970s, and they were accompanied by

cooperative agreements with British and Hong Kong–based companies to help market Chinese-built ships on the international market. Western ship-classification societies were allowed to inspect and provide technical certifications for Chinese-built ships

for the first time, and in 1983 the China Ship Inspection Bureau formally adopted technical standards approved by Lloyd’s Register—a vital quality-control credential for

attracting buyers on the international market.12

The fourth key factor in shipbuilding’s successful defense conversion was a healthy balance of domestic and export demand. Export sales were explicitly targeted as a means

of generating the hard currency required to purchase higher-technology subcomponents

from abroad and to sustain long-term growth, but latent demand in China’s domestic

merchant fleet also played a vital role in facilitating the conversion of the PRC’s shipbuilding industry. That industry had received little attention in previous decades; only

A COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY OF CHINA’S DYNAMIC SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRY 7
18 percent of China’s merchant fleet was domestically built as of 1986, and the vast

majority of the nation’s international trade was carried in chartered or foreign-flag

ships.13 The opening of the Chinese economy increased the demand for maritime trade,

and the PRC merchant marine expanded from 955 ships totaling 6.8 million gross tons

in 1980 to 1,948 ships totaling 13.9 million gross tons in 1990.14 Chinese shipyards were

still too immature in capacity and capability to provide many of the large tankers and

containerships needed in the national fleet, but the steady domestic demand for

small-to-mid-sized shipping provided China’s shipyards with a vital source of orders

while the industry gradually overcame the challenges of breaking into the international

market.15

Fifth, geography played a notable facilitating role in the successful conversion and

growth of China’s shipbuilding industry. The shipbuilding industry paid a heavy price

for the ill-conceived “Third Front” initiative of the 1960s, but the obvious geographic

restraints in building deep-draft ships somewhat minimized the effects of the inland

industrialization movement (especially when compared to other defense sectors). The

largest and most productive of China’s shipyards remained along the coast, near the

business centers of Shanghai, Dalian, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong, which have fueled

much of China’s economic rise over the past two decades.16

Finally, the competitive price advantage gained from plentiful cheap labor cannot be

overlooked as a significant factor in the transformation of PRC shipbuilding. The

seemingly endless supply of inexpensive labor helped Chinese shipbuilders enter the

competitive international shipbuilding market twenty-five years ago, and it remains a

significant marketing advantage today. As of 2002, the average wage for a shipyard

worker in the PRC was estimated to be $325 per month, as compared to $1,400,

$1,800, and $2,400 per month in South Korea, Japan, and Western Europe, respectively.17 Although a sizable portion of this labor cost advantage is offset by production inefficiencies (to be discussed further in later sections), the ready availability of

inexpensive labor has played a significant role in China’s shipbuilding development

and is likely to continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Having successfully

maneuvered through the minefields of defense conversion, the PRC shipbuilding

industry was well positioned as the global shipbuilding market emerged from its

deep recession of the late 1980s. PRC shipyard commercial output crossed the

one-million-tons-per-year mark in 1993 (with roughly 50 percent of tonnage built

for export), propelling China to third position in global commercial shipbuilding,

behind Japan and South Korea, by 1995. As the twentieth century drew to a close,

China had emerged as a new commercial shipbuilding force and was poised for yet

more unprecedented growth in the new century.

8 CHINA MARITIME STUDIES
The Chinese Shipbuilding Industry Today

Two Massive State-Owned Conglomerates

The China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) remained the principal shipbuilding organization in China until July 1999, when it was divided into two separate entities. CSSC remained in control of most shipyards and related subsidiaries in Shanghai

and south of the Yangtze, while the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC)

was established and given control of shipbuilding operations in the northern half of

the country. Currently, both serve as umbrella organizations for a wide range of shipyards, marine subcomponent manufacturing companies, research and design institutes,

and a limited number of non-shipbuilding-related businesses.18 CSSC and CSIC are

considered major state-owned enterprises, and both report to the PRC State Council

through the State Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission

(SASAC).19

The partition of CSSC was part of a larger antimonopoly initiative by the PRC leadership. State-owned monopolies like CSSC were broken up and a limited amount of

free-market competition introduced to help promote reform and innovation within

each defense industrial sector. CSSC and CSIC both hold a significant degree of investment and capital-management autonomy from the state, and the two corporations are

A COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY OF CHINA’S DYNAMIC SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRY 9

Figure 3. Locations and Affiliations of China’s Major Shipyards
allowed to compete directly for domestic government contracts as well as on the international market.20 Competition is facilitated by similar industrial capabilities within

each conglomerate, as well as similar commercial and military product lines. CSSC and

CSIC both actively seek foreign and domestic contracts for such highly competitive

ship types as containerships and very large crude oil carriers (VLCCs), and yards

within each organization produce submarines and advanced surface combatants. Considering the high degree of product specialization and the overall noncompetitive

nature of the PRC aerospace industry, the presence of healthy competition between

state-owned shipbuilders is remarkable and noteworthy within China’s defense industrial establishment.21

Additionally, incentives for self-improvement and technical innovation reside within

the business structures of CSSC and CSIC themselves. As listed in table 1, major shipyards under CSSC and CSIC are further subdivided into several large shipyard group

companies. These companies, such as the Hudong-Zhonghua Group under CSSC and

the Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Group under CSIC, each manage subsidiary shipyards and largely function as independent corporate entities. Day-to-day operations

and most contract bids are handled directly by the shipyards, with the CSSC and CSIC

front offices dealing in more macrolevel resource management and large-scale (or

high-profile) business issues.

As part of efforts to become more globally competitive, CSSC and CSIC have accelerated efforts to become publicly traded corporations. Many subsidiary shipyard companies within CSSC and CSIC are listed on stock exchanges in Shanghai and Hong Kong

(shares of Guangzhou Shipyard International have been publicly traded since 1993),

and CSSC has launched a comprehensive three-phase plan to increase public offerings

across its entire organization. CSSC’s diesel engine builder Hudong Heavy Machinery

(HHM) recently went public with four hundred million shares valued at over twelve

billion RMB (1.5 billion USD), which one CSSC executive characterized as “just a first

step” in the process of incorporating CSSC’s core business units.22 (See tables 2 and 3.)

The business structure changes and incorporation initiatives by CSSC and CSIC are

aimed at improving competitive and management practices within China’s state-owned

shipyards, but in true capitalist fashion, they are also intended to help finance China’s

long-term plan for growth in shipbuilding. The Party Central Committee and State

Council identified shipbuilding as a key industry for development in 2000, and in May

2002 the Chinese premier, Zhu Rongji, challenged the country’s shipbuilders “to propel

the country to world No. 1 status.” Following this direction, the State Commission of

Science, Technology, and Industry for National Defense set a target of 2015 for China

to become the world’s leading shipbuilder.23 This is a lofty goal, considering that China

accounted for only 13.8 percent of gross tonnage built globally in 2005, substantially

10 CHINA MARITIME STUDIES
A COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY OF CHINA’S DYNAMIC SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRY 11

Table 1. PRC Commercial Shipbuilding since CSSC/CSIC Division (July 1999–December 2006)

Sources: All shipbuilding statistics based on data extracted from Lloyd‘s Register–Fairplay Ltd., Register of Ships, Sea-web online

database, www.sea-web.com. Shipyard affiliations based on Barbara Matthews, ed., World Shipping Directory 2006–2007 (Surrey, U.K.: Lloyd‘s Register–Fairplay, 2006), pp. 1-1024 through 1-1048; “Sinopacific Heavy Industries Group: Private Enterprise

Shipbuilding Group with Focus on International Customers,” Toplaterne, no. 80 (January 2006), p. 16, available at www

.mak-global.com/news/pdf/toplaterne80e.pdf; and review of shipbuilder company websites: China State Shipbuilding Corporation, www.cssc.net.cn; China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, www.csic.com.cn; China Ocean Shipping Co. (COSCO),

www.cosco.com; Nantong-COSCO-Kawasaki Heavy Industries (NACKS) Engineering Co., www.nacks.com.cn; Yantai Raffles Shipyard, www.yantai-raffles.com; Qingdao Hyundai Shipbuilding, www.qingdaohyundai.com.

Notes:

1. Shipyards are sorted by their current affiliations. In some cases, ships were produced at the listed yards prior to mergers, privatization, and the establishment of joint ventures. Shipyards with no new-construction during the given time period are omitted.

2. The number of provincial/local shipyards is approximate. Some smaller yards have changed names, merged, and/or closed.

Provinces, direct-controlled municipalities, and semiautonomous regions with no new-construction shipbuilding are omitted.
short of the 35.0 percent and 37.7 percent shares held by Japan and South Korea.24 Yet

China is now hot on the heels of South Korea, having taken ship orders equivalent to

29.6 million compensated gross tons in 2007, as opposed to 32 million CGT of orders

for South Korean yards.25

To provide the infrastructure capacity needed to support increased output and market

share, a significant portion of CSSC and CSIC financial resources have been devoted to

expanding China’s shipbuilding industrial base. The funding for infrastructure expansion has come from a mix of state subsidies, tax exemptions, reinvested profits, and

private-sector financing. Highlighting the shifting nature of the Chinese economy, the

state-run China Daily reported that “the central government supports large shipbuilding companies to issue corporate bonds or go public for shipbuilding infrastructure

construction,” an idea seemingly unimaginable in the prereform era.26

Through these initiatives, CSIC has invested in expansions of its Dalian and Bohai

Shipbuilding Heavy Industry facilities; also, its Qingdao Beihai Shipbuilding Heavy

Industry shipyard recently started construction on two new 500,000-dwt building

docks. Similarly, CSSC has multibillion-dollar projects under way to build massive new

“shipbuilding bases” on Changxing Island in Shanghai and Longxue Island in

Guangzhou.27 These expansion projects are aimed at increasing China’s capabilities for

building more technically complex ships, especially in such high-value sectors as large

containerships, VLCCs, ultralarge crude oil carriers (ULCCs), liquefied natural gas

(LNG) tankers, and cruise ships. If all plans come to fruition, CSSC and CSIC will

between them add roughly twelve million deadweight tons of production capacity, carrying China to its official goal of twenty-four million tons, or 35 percent of world total

shipbuilding capacity, by 2015.28

Joint Venture and Private Enterprise Yards

The development of China’s shipbuilding industry has not been limited to CSSC and

CSIC. The twenty-six shipyards under CSSC and CSIC cognizance account for nearly

70 percent of China’s commercial output by deadweight but represent only 12 percent

of the total number of shipyards engaged in new construction since the CSSC/CSIC

division in 1999 (table 1). This percentage falls even lower in light of the scores of additional Chinese shipyards that engage only in ship repair and therefore do not regularly

appear in ship-construction statistics.

12 CHINA MARITIME STUDIES
A COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY OF CHINA’S DYNAMIC SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRY 13

Table 2. PRC Commercial Order Book as of January 2007

Sources: All shipbuilding statistics based on data extracted from Lloyd’s Register–Fairplay Ltd., Register of Ships, Sea-web online

database, www.sea-web.com.

Notes:

1. Shipyards are sorted by their current affiliations. In some cases, ships were produced at the listed yards prior to mergers, privatization, and the establishment of joint ventures.

2. All future orders for the Zhonghua Shipyard are included under the Hudong Shipyard listing in Lloyd‘s Sea-web database. A

portion of Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding constructs military vessels.

3. The Jiangyin Shipyard of the CSSC Shanghai-Chengxi Shipbuilding (Group) Co. now incorporates the former Chengxi Shipyard.

See builder profile for Chengxi Shipyard at www.sea-web.com.

4. The CSSC Guangzhou Longxue Shipbuilding Base shipyard is currently under construction. Its first delivery is scheduled for

2008. See CSSC, Corporate Profile, www.cssc.net.cn/enlish/gsjj.php.

5. The number of provincial/local shipyards is approximate. Some smaller yards have changed names, merged, and/or closed.

Provinces, direct-controlled municipalities, and semiautonomous regions with no new-construction shipbuilding are omitted.
Beyond CSSC and CSIC, the PRC State Council has jurisdiction over a large number of

smaller shipyards administered by provincial and local governments, as well as numerous yards run by China’s national shipping conglomerates. The exact number of

14 CHINA MARITIME STUDIES

Table 3. PRC Military Shipbuilding since CSSC/CSIC Division (1999–2006)1

Sources: Richard Saunders, ed., Jane‘s Fighting Ships 2006–2007 (Surrey, U.K.: Jane‘s Information Group, 2006); Eric Wertheim,

ed., The Naval Institute Guide to Combat Fleets of the World 2005–2006 (Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2005); and Chinese Defence Today, www.sinodefence.com. Various earlier editions of Jane‘s Fighting Ships, and Jane‘s online database,

www.janes.com, were also consulted.

Notes:

1. Includes ships known to be under construction. Data relating to the exact month of delivery/commissioning for military shipbuilding is generally less granular than in commercial shipbuilding; therefore all ships built from 1999 to 2006 are included. For

Ming SSKs, Houkin PTGs, and Yuhai LSMs, the exact year of delivery is not certain for all units. The last four Ming hulls, last two

Houkin hulls, and last seven Yuhai hulls are included based on estimated build rates and best available data. All other hulls of

these classes are believed to have been built before 1999.

2. Shipyards are sorted by their current affiliations. In some cases, ships were produced at the listed yards prior to mergers. Shipyards with no new-construction during the given time period are omitted.

3. Provinces, direct-controlled municipalities, and semiautonomous regions with no new-construction shipbuilding are omitted.

4. List of ship types/classes produced is not all-inclusive. The primary and noteworthy ship types/classes produced at each yard are

listed as space allows.
provincial and local shipyards is not known, as many new yards have opened and others have merged or changed names as free-market reforms reach the lower levels of the

Chinese economy. Some are managed as highly organized group corporations that

cater to international customers, while others are merely upstart “beach yards” with

relatively little infrastructure or government oversight.29 Illustrating this disparity, the

highly reputable Fujian Mawei Shipbuilding is currently building a series of small

containerships for German clients, whereas one Chinese analyst recently described

lesser provincial yards as “heavily in debt, not organized, technologically backwards,

and having weak risk management capacity.”30 Regardless of administrative structure

and individual performance, however, provincial and local yards in the aggregate play

an important and growing role in Chinese shipbuilding. They have produced 1,168

new ships, totaling over 5.1 million deadweight tons, since 1999 (10.7 percent of the

PRC total), more than double the total provincial and local yard output from 1982 to

1999.31 While “beach yards” would likely be unable to produce advanced surface combatants, the ability to bring this type of “grassroots” shipbuilding quickly on line could

allow expanded production of simple landing craft and military auxiliary vessels within

a relatively short time frame, if perceived national security needs require.

Unlike the variety at provincial and local levels, the shipyards controlled by China’s

shipping lines more closely resemble the shipyard group companies within CSSC and

CSIC. Historically, shipping company yards focused on maintenance and repair of their

own vessels, but in recent years they have increasingly moved into new construction to

supply their own fleets, other domestic customers, and international buyers. The China

Changjiang (Yangtze) National Shipping Group is the third-largest fully state-owned

shipbuilder, behind CSSC and CSIC, producing 128 new ships, totaling 1.4 million dwt,

A COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY OF CHINA’S DYNAMIC SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRY 15

Figure 4. Market Share of World Gross Tonnage Produced, 1975–2005
since 1999. It operates four new construction and numerous ship repair yards along the

Yangtze River, mostly in the inland provinces of Hubei and Anhui.

China’s other major national shipping conglomerates, the China Shipping (Group)

Company and China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO), also operate their own shipyards. China Shipping controls five shipyards in Shanghai and Guangzhou under its

China Shipping Industry Company (CIC) subsidiary, all of them specializing in ship

repair work.32 COSCO operates major facilities in Dalian, Nantong, and Guangzhou

that similarly focus on ship repair and conversion, but unlike CIC, COSCO also

engages in construction. The Nantong-COSCO KHI Ship Engineering Company

(NACKS) shipyard, one of China’s leading commercial shipbuilders, is a fifty-fifty joint

venture between COSCO and Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) of Japan. It builds for

the COSCO fleet as well as international customers, producing 3.7 million deadweight

tons since 1999 (7.7 percent of China’s total), delivering over 1.1 million tons in 2006

alone.33

The success of NACKS highlights a growing trend toward more joint venture and private enterprise companies in China’s shipbuilding industry. Prior to 1999 there were

only two joint venture shipyards operating in China: the Yantai Raffles Shipyard, a joint

venture established in 1994 among the China National Petroleum Company, the Yantai

City Mechanical Industrial Company, and the Brian Chang Group of Singapore; and

Shanghai Edward Shipbuilding, a 1997 joint venture between CSSC and Hansa Shipbuilding of Germany.34 In 1999 the Ninth People’s Congress approved a constitutional

amendment officially affirming the importance of the private sector to China’s economy, and the government openly encouraged shipyards to pursue joint venture development following the bifurcation of CSSC.35

Initially, foreign investment in most joint ventures was limited to a 49 percent share,

and agreements included mandatory provisions ensuring foreign technology transfer

into Chinese shipyards as a result of any partnership. Foreign companies were limited

to non-controlling interests in new ship construction and low-speed marine diesel

engine production, but they were allowed to establish wholly owned marine equipment

factories in China.36 These restrictions were somewhat relaxed following China’s admission to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, which required the gradual

opening of the Chinese economy to foreign direct investment and foreign corporate

ownership across all sectors.37 That said, Beijing continues to view shipbuilding as a

strategic sector and has forbidden foreign ownership of more than 49 percent in Chinese shipyards.38 Certain wholly foreign-owned yards, such as Singaporean Brian

Chang’s Yantai Raffles yard, appear to have been “grandfathered” in, since they existed

prior to the promulgation of this new rule in 2006.

16 CHINA MARITIME STUDIES
Foreign shipbuilders have been quick to exploit the opening of the Chinese market and

eager to reap the benefits of China’s low-cost labor pool to offset the rising competition

from Chinese shipbuilders. Virtually all Singaporean shipbuilding and repair companies have established joint ventures or wholly owned subsidiaries in China, and major

shipbuilders from Japan and South Korea have likewise entered the Chinese market in

force. Tsuji Heavy Industries and the Tsuneishi Group of Japan and Samsung Heavy

Industries and Daewoo Shipbuilding of South Korea have established hull-block fabrication facilities in China and have had at least limited success obtaining authorization

for full ship construction at their Chinese subsidiaries.39 In total, eight joint-venture,

private-enterprise, and foreign-owned shipyards have delivered ships by the end of

2006, and six additional non-state-owned yards have ships on order as of July 2007 (see

tables 1 and 2).40

This is not to imply that the Chinese shipbuilding industry is heading toward a wave of

multinational corporate ownership. To the contrary, the PRC government recently

pulled in the reins on foreign investment in Chinese shipbuilding. Limitations on foreign shipbuilding investment were retightened in September 2006, again restricting foreign companies to 49 percent shares in Chinese shipyards, diesel engine, and crankshaft

manufacturing enterprises. Additionally, foreign companies “must also transfer their

expertise to local partners through the establishment of technology centers.”41 The

state-run Shanghai Daily characterized these regulations instituted by the PRC Commission of Science, Technology, and Industry for National Defense (CSTIND) as a

move “to both maintain control over the fledgling [shipbuilding] industry and tap

overseas know how,” noting further that “a 49 percent ceiling in foreign ownership

means ship manufacturing falls into the central government’s ‘strategic’ industry category and needs special oversight and support.”42 These restrictions clearly illustrate the

limit to which the PRC government is willing to let Chinese shipbuilding move toward

Western-style corporate business models and point to the strategic overtones of shipbuilding development in China. The rollback of foreign investment limits is also likely

to stimulate questions by European and other shipbuilding competitors about Chinese

compliance with WTO regulations, questions that are likely only to increase as China

captures a growing share of the world shipbuilding market.43

Military Shipyards

The smallest, least significant, and least understood element of China’s shipbuilding

industrial structure is a group of shipyards directly controlled by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Unlike China’s other state-owned shipyards, which fall under the

State Council, PLA shipyards answer to the General Armaments Department of the

Central Military Commission (CMC). Little open-source data is available describing

A COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY OF CHINA’S DYNAMIC SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRY 17
the exact capabilities of the PLA shipyards or the full scope of their work. Maintenance

and repair of PLA Navy vessels constitute a core competency, but at least five PLA yards

have engaged in some degree of commercial shipbuilding at various times over the past

twenty-five years. Currently, PLA Navy Factory 4807 in Fu’an and Navy Factory 4808 in

Qingdao remain active in commercial new construction, both building small chemicaland oil-products tankers for Greek and Saudi buyers.44

China’s Shipbuilding Geography

As one might expect, the vast majority of China’s shipbuilding output comes from the

country’s coastal provinces.45 China’s eleven coastal provinces are home to 90.7 percent

of the shipyards engaged in new construction since 1999, accounting for 91.9 percent

of the total ships produced and 97.6 percent of the tonnage output by deadweight.

Within the coastal areas, China’s shipbuilding output is even further concentrated. Just

three areas—Shanghai, Liaoning, and Jiangsu—have produced over 80 percent of

China’s total deadweight since 1999. Fourteen shipyards in Shanghai account for 36.7

percent and the shipyards of Liaoning and Jiangsu provinces for 23.9 and 21.8 percent,

respectively. Of note, 83 percent of Liaoning’s tonnage output came in that period from

the two yards of the Dalian Shipbuilding Industry (Group) Company, China’s largest

shipbuilder by deadweight.

Concentration and Yet Also Dispersion

Despite the coastal concentration of tonnage output, the dispersion of China’s shipbuilding infrastructure into several inland provinces is also noteworthy. Some of this

dispersion is an artificial holdover from Mao Zedong’s “Third Front” initiative of the

18 CHINA MARITIME STUDIES

Table 4. Recent Foreign Investment in Chinese Shipbuilding1

Sources: “STX Shipbuilding to Establish Two Subsidiaries in China,” Yonhap News Agency, 15 September 2006; “Tsuji Heavy Is

First Foreign Yard to Build Ships in China,” Lloyd‘s List,19 July 2006; “Daeyang Angles for Major Stake in China Shiprepair,”

Lloyd‘s List, 29 March 2006; and “Keppel Joins New Wave of China Shipbuilders,” Lloyd‘s List, 2 June 2005.

Note: 1. Listed facilities are in addition to those included in tables 1 and 2.
1960s, but most of China’s shipyards along the Yangtze River continue to operate for

legitimate economic reasons.

The Yangtze is navigable for oceangoing vessels as far as Wuhan in Hubei Province,

some six hundred miles upriver from Shanghai. Smaller vessels use the river extensively

for another thousand miles inland. Consequently, the Yangtze represents a commercial

transportation link of importance similar to that of the Danube in Europe and the Mississippi in the United States; Vice Premier Huang Ju recently announced a fifteen-billion-RMB

(1.85 billion USD) government initiative to develop further “shipbuilding standardization” and other shipping-related activities along this vital inland waterway.46 Currently,

the Yangtze’s shipbuilding significance is highlighted by Song-class submarine construction at CSIC’s Wuchang Shipyard in Wuhan and by China Changjiang National

Shipping Groups’ commercial construction work at four yards along the river. These

include the Damen Yichang Shipyard in Hubei Province, a recently formed joint venture between Changjiang National and the Damen Shipbuilding Group of the Netherlands to build ships for export.47

The shipbuilding infrastructure along China’s other rivers is not nearly as significant

but does include numerous shipyards along the Yellow River in Shandong Province and

the Pearl River in the south of China. Also, as China continues to promote access to the

A COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY OF CHINA’S DYNAMIC SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRY 19

Figure 5. Shipbuilding Production by Province since 1999

Source: Data compiled from Lloyd’s Register–Fairplay Ltd., Register of Ships, Sea-web online database, www.sea-web.com.
Mekong River for oceangoing ships, further development of inland shipbuilding/repair

infrastructure is a future possibility.48

Customer Geography

Overall, Chinese commercial shipbuilding output is heavily weighted toward export

sales, with roughly 80 percent of ships built in 2006 destined for export customers.49

COSCO and other domestic customers have accounted for 553 ships, totaling thirteen

million deadweight tons, built in China since 1999, but this represents only 27.1 percent of China’s total deadweight output over the period. This is noteworthy considering

that Chinese officials and media reports routinely stress strategic self-sufficiency in the

building of a national merchant fleet as the overriding goal for shipbuilding capacity

expansion.50 Regardless of stated intentions, profit from international commercial sales

appears to dominate, and the share of export tonnage is set to grow to nearly 80 percent, based on China’s current commercial order book. The geographic distribution of

buyers spans the globe but generally represents the overall ownership structure of the

world merchant fleet.51

Shipbuilding Output by Ship Type

For many years after China’s shipbuilding industry emerged in the 1980s, the types of

ships built were of relatively low complexity. Commercially, the majority of China’s

shipbuilding output comprised dry bulk carriers, small tankers, and general cargo

ships. On the naval side, shipbuilding through the 1980s was dominated by Luda-class

destroyers, Jianghu I/II–class frigates, and Ming-class diesel submarines, all of which

were obsolescent by Western standards at the time of their commissioning.

As shown in figure 7, the diversity and complexity of China’s commercial shipbuilding

output has steadily increased over the past twenty-five years. China has moved into the

20 CHINA MARITIME STUDIES

Figure 6. Country of Origin for Buyers of Chinese-Built Ships, July 1999–December 2006

Source: Data compiled from Lloyd’s Register–Fairplay Ltd., Register of Ships, Sea-web database, www.sea-web.com. Figures

depict country of ship group owner location, not country or flag of ship registry.
lucrative international markets for large containerships and VLCCs/ULCCs, and

CSSC’s Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding delivered the first Chinese-built LNG tanker

in 2007, with at least three more LNG tankers in varying stages of construction at the

Shanghai yard.52 The ability of Chinese shipyards to build these larger, more complex

ships can largely be attributed to a blending of growing domestic experience with a fair

amount of foreign technology, but it is also a product of investments in expanded and

modernized shipbuilding infrastructure. Photo 1, for example, shows the new Chinesebuilt LNG carrier Dapeng Moon at dockside in the heavily modernized Shanghai

Hudong-Zhonghua shipyard.

Prior to 1995, China did not have a building dock large enough to construct VLCCs or

other large types of commercial ships. A 300,000-dwt dock at Dalian Shipbuilding’s No.

2 Yard (formerly “Dalian New Shipbuilding Heavy Industry”) delivered the first

Chinese-built VLCC in 2002, and since then eight additional VLCC-sized building

docks have been added in China.53 With current shipyard expansion projects, China’s

VLCC dock inventory is expected to reach thirty by 2015. This will dwarf the current

nine in Japan and more than double the number in South Korea (the two countries

that have heretofore dominated the global VLCC market).54 As figure 5 illustrates,

VLCCs will figure in China’s output as more large building facilities come on line in

coming years, and output will trend toward the mix of increasingly complex ships officially targeted in China’s National Medium and Long-Term Plan of the Shipbuilding

Industry:

• High-tech, high-function, and special ships, and large ships of 100,000 dwt and

above

A COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY OF CHINA’S DYNAMIC SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRY 21

Figure 7. PRC Commercial Shipbuilding Output by DWT and Ship Type, 1982–2009

Source: Data compiled from Lloyd’s Register–Fairplay Ltd., Register of Ships, Sea-web database, www.sea-web.com.
• Passenger ships, roll-on/roll-off (Ro-Ro) passenger ships, passenger-cargo ships,

and train ferries

• LPG ships and LNG ships with a handling capacity of 5,000 cubic meters and above

• Containerships with a capacity of three thousand twenty-foot-equivalent units

(TEU) and above

• Large deep-sea fishing boats, marine drill vessels, oil rigs, marine floating

production, storage, and off-loading (FPSO) structures, and other offshore

engineering equipment.55

China’s move toward producing larger, more complex ships has not been limited to the

commercial sector. When CSIC received China’s first order for VLCCs in 1999, its general manager reportedly remarked that it was a dream come true, since Chinese shipbuilders “had long had two dreams—to build military aircraft carriers, and huge crude

oil carriers.”56 Although China has yet to build an aircraft carrier, it now possesses

building docks capable of doing so, and it has demonstrated significant progress in

building more complex naval ships over the past decade.57 Recent years have seen the

Luyang II–class (Type 052C) air-defense destroyer emerge from Jiangnan Shipyard,

Jiankai-class (Type 054) “stealth” frigates from the Hudong and Guangzhou Huangpu

shipyards, and two new classes of nuclear-powered submarines from Bohai Shipbuilding Heavy Industries in Huludao. All of these classes represent notable advances in

technology and complexity over previous Chinese warships, and each of these shipyards is engaged in both military and commercial construction.

Viewed holistically, the cumulative effects of China’s improved commercial shipbuilding prowess have undoubtedly benefited China’s naval development to some degree. As

previously discussed, most of China’s shipyards have undergone significant infrastructure improvements, and the large volume of foreign commercial sales has provided

PRC shipyards (and the central government) with resources necessary to train and

equip their workforces for naval construction. Beyond these generalizations, it becomes

far more difficult to quantify the degree to which commercial success has benefited

Chinese naval development. While some fundamental aspects of ship design and construction are inherent to any ship type, the unique design requirements and operational characteristics of warships often cause military shipbuilding to diverge sharply

from the harsh economic demands that govern tankers and containerships built for an

internationally competitive commercial market.58

Commercial-Military Synergies: Key Processes and Technologies

To provide a better understanding of the implications of China’s commercial shipbuilding development on naval modernization, the second half of this study will focus

22 CHINA MARITIME STUDIES
on five key shipbuilding process

and technology areas that have

potential for significant civilmilitary overlap: advanced ship

production methods, systems

integration, hull construction

and metallurgy, subcomponent

technologies, and marine propulsion technologies. Examining

China’s indigenous capabilities in

these key areas will offer a more

refined look into China’s commercial shipbuilding progress

beyond the volumetric measurement of tonnage output and, more importantly, provide insight into how advances in

these areas may (or may not) affect the pace of future Chinese naval development.

Advanced Ship Production Methods

The expansion and modernization of China’s major shipbuilding facilities over the past

decade have been accompanied by appreciable advances in shipbuilding processes and

construction methods. For the most part, this trend has centered on the adoption of

the hull-block construction method and associated zone-based production systems

(i.e., on-block zone outfitting, painting, testing, etc.). The hull-block method can be

traced back to the building of the U.S. emergency fleets during World Wars I and II; it

essentially represents modular construction and group technology processes applied to

shipbuilding. It has been perfected by Japanese and South Korean shipbuilders in

recent decades by incorporating many of the quality-control and “just in time,” “lean,”

manufacturing aspects of the renowned Toyoda Production System. Currently it is

accepted as the gold standard of efficiency for virtually all forms of shipbuilding.59

The primary benefits of hull-block construction are shorter build times for individual

ships and greater overall throughput capacity for a shipyard, translating into greater

productivity and profit. In the centuries-old shipbuilding method of laying a keel and

building an entire hull upon it piece by piece, a ship is typically not moved until it is

launched into the water. In the hull-block method, modules are assembled in a quasiassembly-line fashion, moving in logical work flows through various work stations and

assembly points in the shipyard. Smaller modules are sequentially joined together to

form ever-larger blocks; only the largest “grand blocks” are moved onto a building way

or into a graving dock for final joining. This approach minimizes the amount of time

A COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY OF CHINA’S DYNAMIC SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRY 23

Photo 1. Bulk carrier Ecomar (left) and LNG carrier

Dapeng Moon (right) in Hudong-Zhonghua Shipyard
that each individual ship occupies the critical building-way/graving-dock bottleneck

prior to launch. Furthermore, blocks are painted and outfitted with subsystems to an

optimal extent throughout the process, thereby reducing the time required for fitting

out after the hull is launched.

Although relatively simple in concept, full-scale adoption of the hull-block construction method is often challenging. It requires a paradigm shift, extending back to the

ship-design process, and elaborate management control systems. Implementing

hull-block construction methods can be equally challenging from a physical perspective, especially for older shipyards with infrastructure originally sized for sailing vessels,

not today’s mammoth supertankers. Moving large hull blocks (especially those made

appreciably heavier by pre-outfitting) often requires investment in sophisticated transport equipment and high-capacity cranes; also, accurately joining grand blocks on traditional, inclined building ways is no trivial task. Consequently, many world-class

commercial shipbuilders have achieved their leading positions by effectively starting

from scratch, investing in new greenfield facilities. These new shipyards optimize their

layout for efficient material flow; use modern high-capacity gantry cranes; and employ

not inclined slipways but land-level building docks, ship lifts, or floating dry docks for

ease of grand-block assembly and ship launching.60

In China, this “greenfield” trend is highlighted by the completely new CSSC Shanghai

Waigaoqiao, Changxing Island, and Guangzhou Longxue shipyards, as well as by CSIC’s

Dalian Shipbuilding No. 2 and Qingdao Haixiwan yards. These new facilities incorporate hull-block construction and other modern building methods. Most major Chinese

yards now have imported computer-aided design, modeling, and production equipment to aid further in implementing advanced production techniques.61 As a result,

China’s improved shipbuilding infrastructure not only adds the additional capacity

required to build today’s large commercial ships but facilitates full implementation of

modern shipbuilding techniques required to match the series-production rates of Japanese and South Korean shipbuilders. Recent Chinese writings indicate that block production and other efficiency improvements have allowed Waigaoqiao to shorten the

time needed to build a 175,000-dwt Capesize bulk carrier from 369 days to, first, 109

days and now thirty-five days per vessel. Such advanced construction practices,

together with other operational improvements, have allowed the yard’s per-worker productivity to climb from 40,000 RMB/man-year to 127,000 RMB/man-year.62

In general, these more efficient production methods have the potential to yield similar

beneficial effects on military shipbuilding: reduced build times, increased shipyard output, and lower individual unit cost. These potential benefits are certainly noteworthy

and should not be discounted, but the inherent differences between military and commercial shipbuilding introduce a significant caveat—expected efficiency gains in

24 CHINA MARITIME STUDIES
commercial shipbuilding cannot necessarily be translated in their entirety into Chinese

naval development.

The efficiency gains realized through block construction and lean shipbuilding techniques are typically realized to their fullest extent only over the long term of series production. Military shipbuilding typically deals in much smaller production runs, and

the inherent complexity of warships produce substantially more in-process design

changes and technical problems that disrupt production flow than is the case in the

commercial sector. Time and cost benefits can still be achieved in military shipbuilding

as compared to traditional production methods, but it is exceptionally difficult to realize the full benefits of improved commercial production techniques when military and

commercial production are attempted within the same facility. When coproduction is

undertaken, delays in military production often negatively affect commercial efficiency

(especially if delay ties up a critical production point, such as a building dock).

Whereas a military client (i.e., the government) has little choice but to accept delays

and disruptions in naval shipbuilding, an international shipowner, having other

choices in building location, may be far less likely to accept delivery after the contracted

dates.

Consequently, as China’s shipbuilding industry continues to move toward a goal of efficiently building more complex and high-value commercial ships, it is likely to face

many of the same coproduction and commercial-military prioritization challenges previously encountered by Western shipbuilders. Shipbuilders in the rest of the world

(including the leading commercial builders in Japan and South Korea) have almost all

responded by specialization. They have either isolated military production to a specific

shipyard away from commercial activities or opted out of one or the other type of shipbuilding altogether. Furthermore, shipbuilders remaining active in both sectors have

largely devoted their largest, most modern yards to commercial production, leaving

smaller, older facilities to military shipbuilding, with its lower competitive pressures,

smaller production runs, and generally smaller vessels.63

There are dangers in mirror-imaging the actions of private and publicly owned Western shipbuilders onto state-owned Chinese shipyards, but initial indicators show a similar trend developing in China. The older shipyards of CSSC and CSIC routinely engage

in commercial and military shipbuilding within the same facility, often on adjacent

building ways and even within the same building docks.64 The same cannot be said of

China’s newest shipyards. At Dalian Shipbuilding, the new greenfield shipyard (Yard

No. 2) has thus far produced only commercial ships, while Type 051 destroyers have

been built on the inclined slipways of the old Dalian Shipyard (Yard No. 1). Likewise,

CSSC’s Shanghai Waigaoqiao land-level shipyard has focused on dry bulk carriers and

large oil tankers since opening in 2003, while the PLAN’s most advanced Type 052B/C

A COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY OF CHINA’S DYNAMIC SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRY 25
destroyers have slid down the ways a few miles away at the 142-year-old Jiangnan

Shipyard.

This is not to say that highly advanced warships cannot be built at older shipyards.

Bath Iron Works built Arleigh Burke–class Aegis destroyers on traditional slipways up

through 2001 at its cramped 123-year-old facility in Maine.65 Nonetheless, under normal peacetime conditions, the efficiency gains achieved through advanced production

methods and shipyard facilities are more likely to help China achieve a larger share of

the commercial shipbuilding market than to play a dominant role in PLAN modernization. Under more ominous strategic circumstances, though, PRC leadership could

always forgo the commercial advantages of these new facilities for the sake of national

security. Diverted toward military production, the advanced production capabilities of

China’s new shipbuilding infrastructure hold considerable strategic potential, as will be

further discussed below.

Systems Integration

Advanced shipyards and production processes do not of themselves guarantee the ability to build complex ship types. Efficiently integrating numerous mechanical, electrical,

cargo, and habitability systems within the confined space of a ship has always been a

principal challenge for naval architects and shipbuilders, and it is often the greatest difficulty in warship construction. The space, weight, electrical load, and redundancy

requirements for every major mechanical and electrical component must be accounted

for in a ship’s design, and a shipbuilder must successfully install, integrate, and test the

miles of piping, cable, duct work, and computer software that link all of a ship’s various

subsystems together. These tasks become ever more demanding as the overall complexity of a ship increases, reaching a pinnacle in warship production due to the additional

demands of weapons systems, increased redundancy, and large crews. Whereas a typical

VLCC may have two hundred major pieces of mechanical and electrical equipment

among its two dozen systems, a modern destroyer can have that level of complexity in

its propulsion plant alone.66

Consequently, the ability of Chinese naval architects and shipbuilders to integrate successfully increasingly complex ship systems stands to have a significant impact on the

pace of China’s naval development. The dry bulk carriers and oil tankers that have thus

far dominated Chinese commercial shipbuilding are relatively low in complexity and

offer little or no potential for a carryover effect for improving systems integration in

military shipbuilding. The same cannot be said of the considerably more complex

210,000-dwt FPSO vessels recently built by Dalian Shipbuilding or of the LNG tankers

currently under construction at Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding in Shanghai. The

sophistication of the cargo processing and storage equipment on these vessels is at the

26 CHINA MARITIME STUDIES
high end of the spectrum for commercial ships and exceeds that of most naval auxiliaries. Large cruise ships are more complex, in the sheer volume of systems that must be

integrated to accommodate (and entertain) thousands of passengers, but the technological demands of building FPSOs and LNG carriers are by no means negligible.

The impression of progress in systems integration proficiency shown by Chinese shipbuilders on these projects is somewhat tempered by the level of foreign technical assistance required. In the case of the FPSO under construction at Dalian, the shipowner

has required a team of technical representatives four times larger than for similar projects built in South Korea, and the most complex portions of the vessel’s outfitting are

scheduled to be installed in Singapore after it leaves Dalian.67 Similarly, Chantiers de

l’Atlantique of France is providing significant technical assistance for the LNG project

at Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding, reportedly maintaining a team of fifty technicians

on site throughout the project.68

In the naval sector, the outward complexity of the Luyang II air-defense destroyer and

other recent PLAN programs seems to indicate a growing trend of improving systems

integration. The Luyang II class is equipped with the PLAN’s first phased-array radar,

the cornerstone of a combat system that also includes HQ-9 naval surface-to-air missiles and a forty-eight-cell vertical-launch system (VLS). The integration of these three

subsystems into a comprehensive long-range, area-air-defense system is a notable

achievement, and it may indicate a move toward improved PLAN blue-water capability.69 While this may be the case, however, little is currently known as to the actual

capabilities or operational effectiveness of the Luyang II’s systems, and one cannot

look past the purchase of advanced Sovremenny-class destroyers and Kilo-class submarines from Russia as indicators of continued limitations in indigenous capabilities

for integrating the most complex warship systems.

As the FPSO and LNG projects illustrate, the systems integration capabilities of PRC

shipyards will remain one of the primary challenges in PLAN modernization. The production of 300,000-dwt ULCCs demonstrates the ability of Chinese shipyards to build

hulls of aircraft-carrier size and strength, but their ability to integrate the complex

matrix of aircraft, catapults, arresting gear, weapons systems, and large propulsion

plants required for an operational aircraft carrier remains in doubt.70 Still, the steady

progression in the complexity of both commercial and military shipbuilding in China

makes systems integration capabilities an area worthy of future attention in tracking

PLA naval modernization.

Hull Construction and Metallurgy

Notwithstanding its low systems complexity, a 300,000-dwt crude carrier is still a structurally imposing web of steelwork. International environmental safety concerns have

A COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY OF CHINA’S DYNAMIC SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRY 27
led to double hulls and increased subdivision in virtually all new crude carriers, and the

large hatch openings and hull-fairing requirements of high-speed containerships have

produced an equally demanding set of structural design and construction challenges.71

In this regard, the volume of commercial production at Chinese shipyards has provided

ample opportunity to refine and develop the steel fabrication and construction processes required for building today’s large merchant vessels. These improvements have

been facilitated by the increasing capacity, quality, and price advantage of China’s steel

industry, as well as by the importation of the latest automated welding and steel-panelprocessing equipment from Europe, Japan, and South Korea.72

There are potential carryover effects for the military sector. While basic to ship production, steel quality and structural integrity have not always been a strong point for Chinese naval vessels. Luda-class destroyers and other earlier classes of Chinese surface

combatants apparently lacked adequate watertight subdivision or damage-control

capabilities. The four Type 053HT frigates built by Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding

for the Royal Thai Navy in the early 1990s were reportedly of such poor material quality that they required immediate dry-docking in Thailand after delivery to correct

numerous serious deficiencies.73

Recent generations of PLAN combatants have undoubtedly benefited at some level

from the hull construction experience gained from commercial production, and Chinese shipyards now possess more familiarity with the structural requirements of building larger, more complex ships, experience that could prove equally beneficial to future

naval modernization efforts. Despite the opportunity for civil-to-military carryover,

little is known, beyond superficial observation, of the actual structural quality of new

PLAN vessels, and several shortcomings still exist in the commercial sector. One Chinese government official recently cited Chinese structural design abilities as lagging far

behind top shipbuilders;74 a Western technical representative interviewed specifically

identified steel castings and welding quality as areas of continued concern when contracting work to Chinese shipyards.75

Further reflecting these concerns, a coalition of four PRC government agencies in April

2005 started a “national special campaign against construction of low quality ships”

that included strengthened regulatory standards and inspections of Chinese-built ships

and yards. These inspections reportedly forced suspension of operations at 303 Chinese

shipyards and failed 586 ships of poor material quality (of which 202 were designated

for scrapping).76 Most of these shipyards were undoubtedly small local and provincial

yards and the failed ships of early vintage, but the inspection results illustrate the wide

disparity in basic quality that still exists across the Chinese shipbuilding industry.

28 CHINA MARITIME STUDIES
There are also limits to the degree to which progress in commercial hull construction

can directly benefit military shipbuilding. Whereas merchant ship hulls are typically

made of mild-steel plates of consistent thickness for ease of construction and lower

cost, stringent weight and strength concerns in naval vessels often force the use of more

advanced steel types and a wide variety of plate thicknesses. These demands require

sophisticated steel fabrication and welding techniques that are rarely found in commercial shipbuilding. Naval auxiliary vessels are often built to commercial hull standards,

but the vast majority of combatant vessels are constructed with grades of steel, types

and qualities of welds, and varieties of plate thicknesses that differ significantly from

commercial practice. The use of stainless and high-nickel steels in LNG, LPG, and specialty chemical tankers provides some experience with more advanced fabrication and

welding techniques, but the development of these skill sets will likely be driven more by

military than by commercial ship production needs.

One notable exception in which commercial hull construction is leading military development is the use of aluminum in fast ferries. The extra cost and complexity of designing and building ships with this aluminum are made commercially viable by the speed

benefits afforded through lighter weight. The lower structural strength and melting

point of aluminum, however, have limited its use in mainstream warship construction.

Despite these strength and damage resiliency disadvantages, several navies have recently

turned to aluminum as they look for high speed in specialized littoral warfare and

transport vessels. In doing so, they have turned to leading commercial fast-ferry builders (such as Austal of Australia) for not only aluminum welding and fabrication techniques but complete aluminum hull designs. The trimaran variant of the U.S. Navy’s

new Littoral Combatant Ship (LCS) is being designed and built by Austal USA; in

China, the aluminum catamaran hull of the new Type 022 Houbei-class fast attack craft

is widely believed to be derived from Western fast-ferry designs.77 Consequently,

whereas traditional types of PLAN frigates and destroyers are likely to draw only general benefits in hull construction quality from commercial shipbuilding development,

smaller fast-attack craft and other specialized types may benefit heavily from commercial advances in aluminum hull construction.

Subcomponent Technologies

Warships have always shared some degree of subcomponent commonality with commercial ships in basic habitability, deck equipment, and other non-combat-related

mechanical systems. In recent years the level of commercial-military component commonality has increased, as naval vessels have incorporated more commercially available

computer processors and networks, bridge control and navigation systems, and other

commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technology in an effort to control costs and facilitate

A COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY OF CHINA’S DYNAMIC SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRY 29
more frequent technology upgrades. Consequently, the development of China’s commercial marine equipment industry has significant relevance to further PLAN

modernization.

The present state of the commercial marine equipment industry is one of notable concern for Chinese officials. Overall, only 40 percent of subcomponents on Chinese-built

commercial ships are from indigenous suppliers. This average percentage falls precipitously for specific ship types of higher complexity (table 5) and is substantially lower

than the 85 and 98 percent domestic-subcomponent-sourcing averages for South

Korean and Japanese shipbuilders, respectively. Commenting on this foreign reliance,

Zhang Xiangmu of CSTIND noted, “A lot of key components simply cannot be manufactured in China at the present time. The country’s capacity to provide the products

required for high-tech and high added-value ships is woefully insufficient.”78 Wang

Rongsheng, the president of the China Association of the Shipbuilding Trade (CAST)

echoed this assessment, commenting that the “low level of the ship components industry has become the bottleneck for the future development of China’s shipbuilding

industry.”79

The impact of reliance upon foreign subcomponent technology goes beyond national

self-reliance concerns. The cost of purchasing subcomponents abroad directly offsets

hard-currency profits, raises the exposure of China’s shipbuilders to monetary

exchange-rate fluctuations, and diminishes the “pillar industry” effects of shipbuilding—that is, promotion of secondary industries in China. Moreover, delivery delays of

outsourced components often interrupt shipyard production flows, further eating into

profits through decreased efficiency. If not improved, one Chinese analyst has warned,

this situation could make China a “hull builder” rather than a true shipbuilder.80

30 CHINA MARITIME STUDIES

Photo 2. Type 022 Fast Missile Boat
In response to these issues, the CSTIND has set a goal of producing 60 percent of all

subcomponents on Chinese-built commercial ships by 2010, and 80 percent by 2015.

The PRC’s National Defense Science and Engineering Working Group has outlined a

strategy for achieving these goals, and the latest National Medium and Long-Term Plan

of the Shipbuilding Industry has cited spurring greater technical innovation in the

marine equipment industry as a major goal. Achieving these goals will not necessarily

require starting from scratch, as China already possesses a large array of marine equipment manufactures. The primary problem lies in the fragmented nature of the industry

and low level of indigenous technological development. Consequently, organizing

China’s current disparate array of small equipment manufactures into a few internationally known “brand name” suppliers and using market-access-for-technology transfer agreements with foreign companies have become key aspects of China’s overall

marine subcomponent development strategy.81

In some areas, the Chinese subcomponent industry appears to be making progress,

while in others it significantly lags international standards. This assessment is supported by myriad statements in Chinese and English sources, as well as by observation

and interviews with shipbuilders and shipowners who operate in China. One of the

authors attended the November 2007 MARINTEC marine exhibition in Shanghai and

observed that Chinese firms making pumps, gears, propellers, and other machinetooled parts were well represented but that European and Japanese firms dominated

the displays of marine engines, complex electronics, and control and navigation

equipment.

There is little doubt that the problems in China’s marine equipment industry have

affected PLAN modernization as they have the commercial shipbuilding sector. Indeed,

Chinese shipbuilding industry trade publications readily note that innovation in pursuit of commercial and military objectives is a major concern for CSSC.82 Such analyses

point out that successful development of ship technologies for civilian use rapidly

A COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY OF CHINA’S DYNAMIC SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRY 31

Table 5. PRC-Sourced Subcomponents by Ship Type

Source: Ship Engineering 27, no. 1 (2005) [in Chinese].
shortens the time and cost associated with developing military variants; they also extol

the benefits of military spin-offs for civilian shipbuilding. In particular, they cite military transport vessels and amphibious assault ships as types whose development may

substantially benefit from the transfer of technology originally intended for civilian

ships.

In general, China has long relied on foreign-made, licensed, or reverse-engineered technology for major weapons systems, and despite notable advances in indigenous combat

systems in its latest classes, it still utilizes a high degree of imported combat systems

equipment in most PLAN vessels (table 6).83 This dependence upon foreign

subcomponents, whether combat systems or less glamorous commercial dual-use

items, drives up acquisition and life-cycle maintenance costs, increases system integration challenges, and places additional demands on crew training. The Chinese literature

includes accounts of sailors tracing out systems by hand on new Kilo-class submarines

due to a lack of technical documentation, as well as instances of flying in German technicians to repair imported MTU diesel engines on the Type 052 destroyer Qingdao

(DDG 113) during the PLAN’s first round-the-world cruise in 2002.84 These examples

illustrate the detrimental effect that imported technology can have on operational

32 CHINA MARITIME STUDIES

Table 6. Major Foreign-Built/Licensed Weapons Systems on PLAN Vessels

Source: Bjorn Hagelin, Mark Bromley, and Siemon T. Wezeman, “Register of Transfers of Major Conventional Weapons, 2005,”

in SIPRI Yearbook 2006: Armaments, Disarmament, and International Security (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2006), pp. 494–96;

and Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, “Trade in and Licensed Production of Major Conventional Weapons:

China 1989–2005,” www.sipri.org/contents/armstrad/access.html.

Note: 1. Numbers of weapons ordered are best estimates according to SIPRI data. Includes direct sales and production licenses.

List does not include weapons systems sold as part of complete naval platforms (e.g., Kilo SSKs and Sovremenny DDGs).
readiness, and they likewise highlight how China’s ability to meet its goals of improving

its domestic marine equipment industry stands to affect significantly both commercial

and military shipbuilding development.

Marine Propulsion Technologies

Within the larger group of ship subcomponent technology, marine propulsion is worthy of particular note. It is an area in which Chinese industry has struggled to develop

indigenous technology, but more significantly, marine propulsion is perhaps the dualuse technology most directly transferable between commercial and military shipbuilding. Commercial diesel engines are common in naval auxiliary vessels worldwide, but

whereas U.S. Navy combatants are predominantly driven by high-performance gas turbine engines or nuclear reactors, Chinese surface combatants and submarines also rely

heavily on diesels derived from the commercial sector. Medium-speed (300–1,000 rpm)

diesels offer high power at a reasonable size and weight, and they typically have lower

initial and fuel-consumption costs than higher-powered gas turbines.85 Larger

low-speed diesels offer high thermal efficiency and ideal fuel economy, but their mammoth size and weight make them ill suited for naval applications (with the exception of

a few large auxiliary vessels). Medium-speed diesels are further attractive for many

navies specifically because of their high commercial commonality; examples are the

SEMT-Pielstick PA- and PC-series diesels on fifty-three Chinese-built commercial ships

and seventy-two PLAN naval vessels (including forty-seven combatants).86

The Pielstick example demonstrates the civil-military overlap in diesel engine technology, but is also indicative of China’s traditional high reliance on imported marine diesel technology. The earliest generations of PRC-built ships relied heavily on Soviet

diesel engines, initially those directly imported from the Soviet Union, and gradually

A COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY OF CHINA’S DYNAMIC SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRY 33

Table 7. Comparison of Major Marine Propulsion Types

Sources: GE Aviation, “Model LM2500,” www.geae.com/engines/marine/lm2500.html; and MAN Diesel, www.manbw.com.
engines built locally under license (often with technical assistance). Continued production of Soviet designs and reverse engineering of other foreign designs provided propulsion for roughly half of China’s small commercial output in the 1960s and 1970s,

with the remaining engines primarily coming from state-owned suppliers in East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Yugoslavia. Similarly, Romeo-class submarines,

Huangfeng patrol craft (PTGs), and T-43 minesweepers built in PRC shipyards during

this period were propelled by Chinese copies of Zavod, Zvezda, and Kolomna diesel

engines from the Soviet era. The quality of these Chinese engines was rather suspect;

the engines of several Romeo-class submarines sold to Egypt reportedly required

extensive refurbishment after their delivery voyages in 1983–84.87

The reforms under Deng Xiaoping opened China to a significant boost from European

diesel technology. Sulzer Brothers of Switzerland signed a licensing agreement in 1978

to allow their world-class low-speed diesels to be manufactured in China, and

Maschinenbau Augsberg-Nuernberg (MAN) of Germany and Burmeister & Wain

(B&W) of Denmark followed with similar agreements in 1980.88 Since then most other

major international diesel manufacturers have likewise entered the lucrative Chinese

market, either through licensing deals, joint ventures, or more recently, a limited number of wholly owned subsidiaries established in China (table 8). These companies represent the world leaders in diesel engine technology, and they have provided Chinesebuilt commercial ships with the propulsion reliability required to attract international

customers.

Hudong Heavy Machinery, and the

Shaanxi, Dalian, and Yichang Marine

Diesel Engine Factories have become

highly reputable manufacturers on the

world commercial market through

license production of foreign name

brands, but as of yet no Chinese engine

builder has broken through with a successful indigenous design. The vast

majority of Chinese-built diesel engines

remain licensed copies of foreign (principally European) designs. Chinesedesigned engines account for only 11

percent of the known four-stroke/

medium-speed diesel propulsion plants

on Chinese-built ships since 1999 and less than 1 percent of the two-stroke/low-speed

diesels prevalent on large commercial vessels. Chinese engine builders reportedly still

34 CHINA MARITIME STUDIES

Table 8. Foreign Diesel Manufactures in China

Sources: Lloyd‘s Register–Fairplay Ltd., Register of Ships,

Sea-web database, www.sea-web.com; and Wärtsilä Corp.,

Wärtsilä Annual Report 2006 (Helsinki: Wärtsilä, 2006).
experience difficulties manufacturing and mating engine blocks and crankshafts on

large marine diesels; foreign licensing companies frequently provide close technical

assistance and quality-control oversight for Chinese factories building their most

advanced engine models.89

The proportion of Chinese indigenous technology is similarly low in naval propulsion.

There is insufficient open-source data in the military sector to determine the ratio of

imported engines and those built locally under license, but the design origin is known

for most PLAN naval propulsion plants. Figure 9 illustrates the high proportion of

A COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY OF CHINA’S DYNAMIC SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRY 35

Figure 8. Type and Origin of Propulsion Plants on PRC-Built Commercial Ships, 1999–2006

Source: Data compiled from Lloyd’s Register–Fairplay Ltd., Register of Ships, Sea-web database, www.sea-web.com.

Figure 9. Type and Design Origin of Propulsion Plants on New PLAN Ships, 1999–2006

Sources: Richard Saunders, ed., Jane’s Fighting Ships 2006–2007 (Surrey, U.K.: Jane‘s Information Group, 2006); Eric Wertheim,

ed., The Naval Institute Guide to Combat Fleets of the World 2005–2006 (Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2005); and Chinese Defence Today, www.sinodefence.com. Various earlier editions of Jane‘s Fighting Ships, and Jane‘s online database,

www.janes.com, were also consulted.

Includes foreign-built vessels (Kilo SSKs and Sovremenny DDGs), and units known to be under construction as of January 2007.
diesel propulsion in Chinese ships and submarines built since 1999, and the very small

percentage of indigenous Chinese engines. MTU diesels from Germany are used on

Song-class submarines, Luhai and Luyang I/II–class destroyers, and they may also be

included in China’s latest Type 071 (Yuzhao) amphibious ships.90 Likewise, French

SEMT-Pielstick diesels provide the main propulsion for Jiangkai-, Jiangnan-, and

Jianghu-class frigates, Houjian-class PTGs, and eight additional classes of PLAN landing and auxiliary ships.91

Of note, licensed production of SEMT-Pielstick diesel engines for military application

(Jianghu-class frigates) dates back to the mid–1970s, several years before production of

licensed Sulzer, MAN, B&W, or Pielstick engines began for commercial use. Furthermore, the sale of Rolls-Royce Spey jet engines to China during this period raised international attention (and the direct involvement of presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald

Ford, Henry Kissinger, and British prime minister Edward Heath), yet the transfer of

naval propulsion technology went relatively unnoticed.92 This applies to the Spey jet

engines themselves, since a marine gas turbine derivative of the Spey has since been

used for main propulsion in British warships.93

Marine gas turbines, like diesel design, have not been a bright spot in Chinese industry.

Their development has been severely hindered by the slow place of indigenous jet

engine development, which is symptomatic of larger issues within the Chinese aerospace industry as a whole. Progress in turbofan (vice older turbojet) technology has

been particularly slow, thus affecting the high-performance aircraft and marine gas

turbine applications that use these more modern and efficient engines.94 Consequently,

no indigenous marine gas turbine has been fielded to date, and the few PLAN units

using gas turbine propulsion have thus far relied on imported engines. The lead unit of

the Type 052 Luhu class of destroyers is equipped with two General Electric LM2500

gas turbines, but U.S. sanctions imposed following the Tiananmen Square incident

forced all following Luhu, Luhai, and Luyang I units to use Zorya-Mashproekt DA-80

gas turbines imported from Ukraine. A technology transfer and license manufacturing

agreement with Zorya-Mashproekt was signed in May 2001, but it is unclear whether

the DA-80 turbines on the latest Luyang II destroyers were locally produced under

license or imported fully built from Ukraine.95

The short-term likelihood that Chinese marine gas turbines will directly affect PLAN

modernization is low, but there are indicators of possible improvements in the longer

term. Jet engine development is a high priority within the PLA, and the recently introduced J-10 and J-11 fighters are expected to be powered by an indigenous W-10A turbofan engine. The original W-10 and other earlier Chinese turbofans were less than

successful, but the W-10A reportedly benefits technologically from Lykulka-Saturn

AL-31F turbofans imported from Russia to power Su-27, Su-30, and earlier J-10

36 CHINA MARITIME STUDIES
aircraft. Furthermore, the Shenyang Engine Research Institute developed China’s first

indigenous aero-derivative gas turbine in 2002 (the QD-128, derived from the Kunlun

jet engine), and Chinese companies are actively pursuing development of larger

aero-derivative gas turbines for electrical power generation and other industrial applications.96 Success with the W-10A turbofan and these aero-derivative initiatives could

provide a significant boost to Chinese marine gas turbine development and help fill the

persistent void in indigenous propulsion technology that has thus far hampered naval

modernization in China.

Human Factors

The technical aspects of ship production methods, systems integration, steel hull construction, marine subcomponents, and marine propulsion certainly have tremendous

bearing on the future course of shipbuilding development in China. However, the value

of gains in these areas is diminished if they are not accompanied by similar growth of

indigenous human capital able to harness new shipbuilding technology. This includes

the engineering skills required to drive innovation in research and design, the

craftsman-level technical skills required to build high-quality ships, and the business

management acumen required to operate large manufacturing organizations efficiently.

With the exception of a few specialty areas, these human skills are generally portable

across shipbuilding sectors and therefore stand to impact directly both commercial and

military shipbuilding development.

Thus far, deficiencies in these human elements have hindered the progress of Chinese

shipbuilding development. Western and Chinese sources rate the overall productivity

of Chinese shipyards as roughly one-sixth that of Japanese or South Korean yards, with

some more detailed estimates placing PRC shipbuilders even farther behind world

leaders. One Chinese analyst estimated the annual economic output of PRC shipyards

at only nine thousand dollars per worker, far behind the $550,000 and $480,000 per

capita outputs of Japanese and South Korean shipyard workers.97 These statistics are

also indicative of the disproportionately large workforce in the Chinese shipbuilding

industry. The industry employs over 275,000 people across all shipbuilding sectors,

with roughly 125,000 directly involved in construction of large oceangoing ships. By

comparison, the more efficient, less labor-intensive shipbuilding industries in Japan

and South Korea employ seventy-two and forty thousand people, respectively.98

To a certain degree the large size of the Chinese shipbuilding workforce is a matter of

policy. Providing employment for China’s massive population is a key role for stateowned shipbuilders, especially in major coastal cities, flooded with workers migrating

from rural areas. Furthermore, many shipyards remain straddled with communist-style

employment policies that severely limit or even prohibit the firing of workers. These

A COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY OF CHINA’S DYNAMIC SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRY 37
practices provide obvious disincentives for increasing productivity and efficiency, summarized by a Dalian Shipbuilding executive’s observation that “it’s difficult to control

the workers if they get paid whether they work or not.”99

While problems remain with regard to blue-collar workers, Chinese shipyards are

actively recruiting new white-collar workers. The Nantong area in eastern China’s

Jiangsu Province is leading the way; shipbuilders and subcomponent makers/systems

integrators there have, in conjunction with a number of technical universities and

research institutes, formed the “Nantong Shipbuilding Industry Human Talent Alliance.”100 Alliance members strive to coordinate their work with Jiangsu provincial-level

economic and shipbuilding industry development plans, focusing on attracting and

retaining new engineers and technical experts graduating from universities. Retention

tools include salary supplements of up to 500 RMB/month for new university graduates who join shipbuilding and subcomponent firms.101

Productivity issues are not limited to the worker level. Many Chinese shipyards still

lack efficient human resource management and suffer from similar front-office deficiencies in material management, scheduling, systematic quality control, and industrial

safety management. These shortcomings are reflected in continued quality and on-time

delivery performance rated below Japanese, South Korean, and European shipbuilders

and in serious concern displayed by some Western shipowners over a general disregard

for worker safety at some Chinese shipyards. Western industry officials interviewed

stressed the wide disparity in performance and business practices between small provincial and large state-owned Chinese shipyards, and they expressed doubts as to the

ability of even well-established CSSC/CSIC yards to turn real profits in light of poor

internal cost-control practices. This assessment is also evident in the remarks of a

senior PRC government official, who recently stated that “the [shipyard] productivity

gap offsets China’s advantage in cheap labor.”102

In a narrow view, it can be safely surmised that these same productivity and management issues will have similar negative effects on naval shipbuilding in China. The

bloated workforce at Chinese shipyards does not help productivity. But in a wider perspective, the large number of shipyard workers may have a secondary strategic effect

that actually benefits the PLA Navy. China’s shipyards are exposing a growing number

of Chinese workers to shipbuilding trades and are helping foster an awareness of the

seas in a country long lacking a robust maritime tradition. Furthermore, China’s sizable

shipbuilding workforce includes a growing number of college graduates. Chinese universities produce approximately 1,200 naval architects per year; counting students

studying overseas, China now matches (or surpasses) its competitors in the number of

college graduates entering the workforce with shipbuilding-related technical degrees.103

China’s rapidly growing population of commercial seafarers provides the PLAN with a

38 CHINA MARITIME STUDIES
strategic reserve in ship operational skills;104 this growing mix of low- and high-end

shipbuilding skills in commercial shipbuilding provides China with a ready pool of

trained labor should a change in strategic circumstances ever require accelerated naval

expansion. For as Alfred Thayer Mahan observed, “It is not only the grand total [of a

country’s population], but the number following the sea, or at least readily available for

employment on ship-board and for the creation of naval material that must be

counted” when considering a nation’s sea power.105

Conclusions and Implications

China’s Prospects in the Global Shipbuilding Market

In the short term, commercial priorities are likely to continue to dominate China’s

shipbuilding industry. The industry’s recent corporate restructuring, facility expansion,

and technological modernization efforts are primarily focused on supporting China’s

drive for global shipbuilding leadership by 2015, and they are likely to make this goal a

reality. Commercial shipowners and shipbuilding analysts generally agree that lingering

quality problems, delivery delays, and management issues at Chinese shipyards will

continue to require extra “due diligence” on the part of potential buyers for the foreseeable future, but they also agree that the massive capacity and continued price advantage

of Chinese shipbuilders will lead China to an ever-increasing commercial market share.

This growth will result in significant ripple effects throughout the global shipbuilding

industry. As Chinese shipbuilders capture more of the market for dry bulk carriers,

tankers, and other commodity carriers at the low end of the commercial market, Japanese and South Korean shipbuilders will be forced to leverage their technology and

productivity advantages by focusing more heavily on more complex ship types at the

high end. Competitive pressures could push Japan, straddled by an aging and more

costly workforce, out of the dry bulk and tanker markets altogether.

The steady technological maturation of China’s shipbuilding industry will help Chinese

shipyards increase their output of LNG tankers and other more complex ship types, but

these high-end market segments are likely to be dominated by Japanese and South

Korean shipbuilders for the foreseeable future. As with the current LNG project at

CSSC’s Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding, China’s initial entries into high-end market

segments are likely to be politically motivated and government subsidized, with international ship buyers taking a “wait and see” approach until Chinese performance in

these complex ship types is proven. Even if China’s entry into high-end market segments is more gradual, ripple effects will still be felt worldwide. As Japanese and South

Korean shipbuilders shift to higher-end market segments in response to Chinese dominance in the dry bulk and tanker markets, serious questions will arise as to the future

A COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY OF CHINA’S DYNAMIC SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRY 39
viability of European shipbuilders that currently survive only through specialization in

cruise ships and other high-end niche markets. Many major shipowners are adjusting

their long-term building strategies to account for these tectonic shifts in the world

shipbuilding industry. One of them comments that building strong business relationships with Chinese shipbuilders now is a key consideration in preparing for the realities

of the global shipbuilding industry of tomorrow.

Two major caveats accompany these predictions. First, China’s remarkable shipbuilding

growth has been partially fueled by an overall boom in the global shipping market.

World seaborne trade grew by 3.6 percent in 2005 and is estimated to have done so

again in 2006, building upon a 4.1 percent increase in 2004. This demand produced a

7.2 percent increase in world deadweight tonnage over 2005, the largest since 1989.106

Shipping demand is expected to increase modestly over the short term, but any downturn in global economic conditions could result in significant shipbuilding overcapacity worldwide. China’s current wave of shipyard expansion would only add to this

excess capacity condition. Generous state financing of domestic shipbuilding contracts

could artificially buoy PRC shipbuilders to some degree during a global shipping recession, but with over three-quarters of current Chinese commercial tonnage going to

export, government contracts may not be able to offset completely a sizable drop in

international commercial orders. Similarly, any shift from the quasi-fixed exchange

ratio currently applied to Chinese currency in the international monetary system to a

more market-based value would diminish the value of the foreign sales that currently

inject significant foreign capital into the PRC shipbuilding industry.

The last major slump in world shipping (and thus shipbuilding) demand came following the “oil shocks” of the 1970s, and it extended through most of the 1980s. Any

future collapse in commercial shipbuilding demand is likely to be caused by a similarly

unexpected world crisis or shift in the global geostrategic environment. The possibility

of such a crisis or geostrategic shift highlights the second major caveat on the initial

commercial conclusions: China’s focus on achieving world commercial shipbuilding

dominance is contingent on the continuance of present world geopolitical conditions.

Should strategic conditions change significantly, the PRC leadership might feel the

need to abandon a policy of commercial shipbuilding development in favor of perceived national security needs. Devoted more fully to military purposes, China’s shipbuilding industry could produce very different strategic results.

What If Military Shipbuilding Became a Top Priority in the PRC?

While the prospect of a total shift to military shipbuilding production in the PRC is

unrealistic, even a more selective shift of shipbuilding priorities, at China’s newest shipyards, could produce notable strategic results. Dedicated military production at

40 CHINA MARITIME STUDIES
modern greenfield shipyards could support significant naval modernization if strategic

resources were aligned accordingly. In the United States, this potential was exemplified

by production at the Ingalls West Bank Shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi, during the

late 1970s and 1980s.107 That yard was built from scratch in the early 1970s, optimized

for land-level mass production. It immediately commenced series production of

Spruance- and Kidd-class destroyers, delivering thirty-one units between August 1975

and February 1983, eight in 1978 alone. The Tarawa-class amphibious assault ships

were also built at the Ingalls West Bank facility during this same period, with all five of

the forty-thousand-ton ships delivered between May 1976 and April 1980.108 The

611-acre Ingalls West Bank Shipyard, however, is dwarfed by the new Guangzhou

Longxue (over 1,400 acres) and Shanghai Changxing Island (more than 1,900 acres)

greenfield facilities, which represent just a portion of China’s new shipyard capacity.

Dedication of one of China’s newest shipyards to military production would produce

the most significant boost to PLAN modernization and expansion, but even a shift to

strictly military shipbuilding at one or more of China’s older shipyards could yield

noteworthy effects. Dedicated military production would allow a yard’s steel-plate fabrication and other production machinery to be optimized for series production of a

selected warship class, generating mass-production efficiencies. Furthermore, the growing number of land-level facilities at Chinese shipyards could also benefit naval construction. Again looking to U.S. shipyards, the new Land Level Transfer Facility at Bath

Iron Works illustrates the benefits of modernization at older shipyards. This new facility has improved production efficiency for the Arleigh Burke–class DDGs through

greater use of block construction techniques and, perhaps more significantly, it now

permits installation of the large SQS-53 bow sonar dome prior to launch. The size of

the dome prevents installation prior to launch on traditional inclined shipways, requiring the ship to be towed to a separate facility for dry-docking specifically for the purpose, adding cost and delaying delivery. New land-level facilities at PRC shipyards can

similarly reduce old-shipyard inefficiencies and facilitate inclusion of such advanced

hull features as medium-frequency sonar domes that have thus far been absent from

PLAN combatants.

Although naval combatants understandably receive considerable attention, the ability

of PRC shipyards to increase significantly the production of amphibious ships and

other naval auxiliary vessels must also be considered. The wide variety of infrastructure

standards and technical capabilities at China’s smaller provincial and local yards may

limit the ability of these yards to produce the most advanced classes of surface combatants and submarines, but many of these yards can build less complex amphibious and

auxiliary vessels. Any major expansion of PLAN surface combatant forces would

require similar increases in oilers and other replenishment vessels; considering possible

A COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY OF CHINA’S DYNAMIC SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRY 41
Taiwan Strait scenarios, mass production of amphibious vessels could have significant

strategic implications.

Lastly, the existing ability of Chinese shipyards to mass-produce and support commercial ships has the potential to support national security needs in a time of crisis. China’s

rapidly growing ship-repair and conversion infrastructure has obvious latent military

capability, and the ability to convert merchant ships to military use cannot be discounted. Merchant tankers can be adapted for use in underway replenishment,

roll-on/roll-off ships and commercial ferries have amphibious assault potential, and

virtually any oceangoing vessel can be made a minelayer. Britain’s rapid conversion of

forty-nine commercial vessels taken up from trade for military use in the Falklands

conflict of 1982 is often discussed in Chinese literature, and Chinese writings on the

military use of merchant ships in wartime roles have been noted by Western analysts.109

This level of Chinese interest illustrates a full-spectrum approach to the use of maritime resources in support of national security needs; the potential for PRC unconventional use of merchant shipping warrants further investigation in future studies.

Some Key Indicators to Watch

Considering these potential implications, there are several key events that, if they occur,

could indicate a shift in PRC strategic shipbuilding priorities. The first important indicator would be the introduction of significant military production at any of China’s

newest greenfield shipyards. Military shipbuilding at CSSC’s Shanghai Waigaoqiao,

Shanghai Changxing Island, Guangzhou Longxue, or any other of China’s most modern shipbuilding facilities would not only indicate a desire to tap into the massive

building capacity and modern production technology these yards offer but, more

significantly, would indicate a willingness to forgo the optimal commercial efficiencies of these new yards. Given the inherent inefficiencies of naval and commercial

coproduction, these new facilities in such a scenario would lose some of their commercial advantage and slow the pace of China’s current drive toward world commercial

shipbuilding dominance.

The first test of this greenfield indicator will come by 2009, as CSSC’s Jiangnan Shipyard completes its move to the new Changxing Island Shipbuilding Base in Shanghai.

CSSC has thus far billed the new Changxing Island facility as a modern commercial

facility “capable of building various high-tech ships, such as LNG ships, offshore engineering facilities and cruise ships”;110 the Jiangnan Shipyard, however, that it is replacing has also been an important builder of China’s most advanced naval combatants.

Jiangnan built (or is currently building) several classes of frigates and destroyers, two

Song-class submarines, and, of particular note, the PLAN’s Type 052C Luyang II

air-defense destroyers. A shift of Jiangnan’s share of military production to another of

42 CHINA MARITIME STUDIES
China’s older shipyards (vice Changxing Island) would be a strong reaffirmation of

commercial shipbuilding’s dominant position in the PRC’s strategic priorities, while

introducing naval construction at the Changxing Island greenfield facility would indicate a more mixed set of strategic priorities.

The second key indicator of a possible shift in PRC shipbuilding strategic priorities

would be a segregation of military production to certain specific shipyards. Segregation

would alleviate the commercial-military coproduction challenges previously discussed

for both old and new shipyards, and it would allow certain yards to be specifically

tooled and optimized for series production of a particular warship design. Dedication

of one or more major CSSC or CSIC shipyards to military production would indicate a

willingness to forfeit a degree of commercial capacity, and it might indicate PLAN

readiness to move from the low-rate production of the latest Type 051B/C, Type 052,

and Type 054 surface combatants to mass production of one or more selected classes.

Specialized military production facilities are of particular interest when considering

nuclear submarine construction. Due to the unique technical and security considerations involved, nuclear submarine construction is performed in only a few select, specialized facilities worldwide. In China, all SSN and SSBN construction to date has been

performed at a specific facility within the Bohai Shipbuilding Heavy Industry complex

in Huludao. While nuclear facilities specialization is not a strategic indicator in itself,

the number of these special nuclear-capable facilities is indicative of shipbuilding strategic intentions. The current facility at Huludao is capable of supporting the PRC’s

current small force of SSNs and SSBNs but could not be expected to support a major

expansion of the PLAN nuclear submarine force on its own. Consequently, any major

expansion of this facility or the establishment of a second specialized nuclear-capable

shipbuilding facility would be a strong indicator of future PLAN force structure and

PRC strategic shipbuilding priorities.

Finally, introduction of standardized “wartime use” technical design and construction

requirements for Chinese-built, Chinese-owned merchant ships would be a subtle yet

important indicator of how the PRC intends to use its shipbuilding infrastructure and

oceangoing commercial fleet to support national defense. Building militarily useful

merchant vessels with strengthened decks, extra communications equipment, increased

electrical power and habitability capacities, and specified minimum speed and endurance could greatly ease the conversion of vessels from commercial to military use in

time of crisis. Inclusion of extra design features such as these typically increases initial

construction costs and somewhat diminishes the commercial capacity and profit

potential of a vessel (thus likely requiring government subsidy), but as the British discovered in the Falklands conflict, the investment can prove invaluable if the vessels ever

need to be requisitioned for military use. Inclusion of standardized “wartime use”

A COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY OF CHINA’S DYNAMIC SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRY 43
44 CHINA MARITIME STUDIES

design and construction specifications in PRC merchant ships would indicate a more

refined long-term national maritime strategy, including more integrated use of China’s

growing shipbuilding and shipping power for national security needs.

Strategic Benefits of Commercial Shipbuilding Prowess

In his study of Chinese defense conversion, Paul Humes Folta describes the logic of

China’s defense industry reforms as being a conversion “from swords to plowshares . . .

and better swords.”111 Although it has taken nearly thirty years (and the development

process is far from complete), the original goals of Deng Xiaoping’s defense and economic reform efforts have largely been met in China’s shipbuilding industry. The

industry’s conversion “from swords to plowshares” has placed it in the running to

become the world’s leading commercial shipbuilder, and the latest Type 052C Luyang

II–class destroyers exemplify the “better swords” that are possible with a more mature

national shipbuilding industrial base.

The civil-to-military benefits of PRC shipbuilding development are evident through

both direct and indirect effects. Increased shipyard capacity for ship construction,

repair, and conversion provides a direct benefit for military development, as does the

continued development of Chinese indigenous marine subcomponent and propulsion

technology sectors. Progress in the ability of local manufactures to design, produce,

and service mechanical and electrical subcomponent systems of commercial ships will

directly benefit PLA naval development through a wide array of dual-use component

technologies, and the slow, but steady, development of indigenous medium-speed diesel engine production will provide direct relief to the PLAN’s current reliance on

imported propulsion technology.

While less tangible, the indirect effects of China’s commercial shipbuilding development are perhaps just as significant to the modernization of the PLA Navy. The growth

in cumulative experience within the PRC commercial shipbuilding industry provides a

valuable technical foundation of human capital from which to draw in building more

complex warships. Systems complexity, hull designs, and materials in warship design

and construction often differ from those of the commercial shipbuilding market, but

experience in modern commercial block construction techniques translate into military production efficiencies. Chinese naval architects, mechanical engineers, welders,

and shipyard laborers gaining experience in commercial shipbuilding represent a strategic ready reserve of fundamental shipbuilding skills with portability to military production if ever needed.

In a strategic context, it can be argued that the long production times characteristic of

shipbuilding make a strategic reserve of those skills largely irrelevant in an era when

conflicts are apt to be brief, “come as you are” scenarios. A short-fused crisis in the
Taiwan Strait remains the most likely flash point in PRC international relations, and

many have argued that the increasing trends of economic globalization and the balancing effects of nuclear weapons make a sustained conflict requiring World War II–style

industrial mobilization a thing of the past. Writing over a century ago, Alfred Thayer

Mahan addressed this very point: “The whole question of the value of a [strategic]

reserve, developed or undeveloped is this: Have modern conditions of warfare made it

probable that, of two nearly equal adversaries, one will be so prostrated in a single campaign that a decisive result will be reached in that time? Sea warfare has given no

answer.”112

Modern antiship cruise missiles, heavyweight torpedoes, and precision-guided munitions may provide a short and decisive answer to Mahan’s question in the event of a

future shooting war at sea, but the answer is not as clear with respect to a sustained crisis short of war. Continued questions surrounding the long-term trajectory and nature

of China’s rise as a global power and associated uncertainties in the future strategic balance in the Asia-Pacific region tell us that the possibility of sustained tensions triggering a buildup of naval forces cannot be discounted. In such an undesirable scenario, the

latent potential of China’s rapidly growing commercial shipbuilding industry would

undoubtedly play a significant role in PLA naval expansion. Whether propelling China

to commercial shipbuilding dominance, large-scale naval expansion, or more moderate

advances in both directions, China’s rapidly growing shipbuilding industry will

increase the overall maritime power of the PRC and will remain an important strategic

factor, one worthy of continued study in years to come.

Notes

1. “China Ship Building Challenges US, Top

Admiral Says,” Agence France-Presse, 14

December 2007.

2. “Unfinished Guangzhou Mega Yard Builds

Up Head of Steam,” Lloyd’s List, 15 November

2007, available at Lexis-Nexis, www

.lexisnexis.com/us/lnacademic/.

3. “Analysis of Economic Operation of China’s

Shipbuilding Industry in First Half Year,”

World Ships & Boats, no. 9 (September

2007), p. 9.

4. Xu Qi, “Maritime Geostrategy and the Development of the Chinese Navy in the Early

Twenty-first Century,” trans. Andrew

Erickson and Lyle Goldstein, Naval War College Review 59, no. 4 (Autumn 2006), pp.

47–67.

5. Leo Zhang, “China to Limit Foreign Investment in Shipyards,” Shanghai Daily, 19 September 2006, available at www

.shanghaidaily.com.

6. “Pushing a Strategic Shift and Creating a

Shipbuilding Power,” China Ship News, no.

35, 7 September 2007 [in Chinese].

7. Irwin Millard Heine, China’s Rise to Commercial Maritime Power (New York: Greenwood, 1989), pp. 37–39; and Evan S.

Medeiros, “Revisiting Chinese Defense Conversion: Some Evidence from the PRC’s

Shipbuilding Industry,” Issues and Studies 34,

no. 5 (May 1998), pp. 79–101. The only shipyards left beyond the control of the CSSC

were a few minor yards controlled by the

PLA and primarily engaged in ship repair.

8. For more on shipbuilding development in

Japan and South Korea, see Takafusa

Nakamura, The Post War Japanese Economy:

Its Development and Structure, trans. Jacqueline Kaminski (Tokyo: Univ. of Tokyo Press,

1981), pp. 71–75; and Daniel Todd, The

World Shipbuilding Industry (New York: St.

Martin’s, 1985), esp. pp. 286–96 and 340–45,

and Industrial Dislocation: The Case of

A COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY OF CHINA’S DYNAMIC SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRY 45
46 CHINA MARITIME STUDIES

Global Shipbuilding, esp. pp. 136–50 and

183–99.

9. For a comparison of the Chinese business

conglomerate to those in Japan and South

Korea, see Richard J. Latham, “A Business

Perspective,” in Mixed Motives, Uncertain

Outcomes: Defense Conversion in China, ed.

Jorn Brommelhorster and John Frankenstein

(Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner, 1997), pp.

151–78, esp. pp. 158–61.

10. Evan S. Medeiros et al., A New Direction for

China’s Defense Industry (Santa Monica,

Calif.: RAND, 2005), p. 157. For more on

the defense conversion and modernization

of China’s aerospace industry, see Howard O.

DeVore, China’s Aerospace and Defense Industry (Surrey, U.K.: Jane’s Information

Group, 2000); and Kenneth W. Allen, Glenn

Krumel, and Jonathan D. Pollack, China’s

Air Force Enters the 21st Century (Santa

Monica, Calif.: RAND, 1995).

11. Medeiros, “Revisiting Chinese Defense

Conversion,” p. 90.

12. Todd, Industrial Dislocation, pp. 218–21;

and Heine, China’s Rise to Commercial Maritime Power, pp. 38 and 47–49. The nowdissolved British Shipbuilders was the umbrella organization formed following the

nationalization of most of the United Kingdom’s shipbuilding industry in the 1970s.

The far-reaching deal between British Shipbuilders and CSSC was signed in November

1982, just four months after the formal establishment of CSSC. See also Heine,

China’s Rise to Commercial Maritime Power,

pp. 108–109.

13. Heine, China’s Rise to Commercial Maritime Power, pp. 18 and 37; and David G.

Muller, Jr., China as a Maritime Power

(Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 1983), pp.

58–61.

14. Statistical Tables 1992 (London: Lloyd’s

Register of Shipping, 1992), p. 30. Statistics

do not include ships under 100 gross tons;

therefore, most “junks” are excluded.

15. Heine, China’s Rise to Commercial Maritime Power, pp. 47–48; and Todd, Industrial

Dislocation, p. 218.

16. See Medeiros, “Revisiting Chinese Defense

Conversion,” pp. 86 and 98.

17. European Industries Shaken Up by Industrial

Growth in China: What Regulations Are Required for a Sustainable Economy? (Brussels:

European Metalworkers’ Federation, 2006),

p. 57.

18. Non-shipbuilding-related business areas for

both companies include fabrication of such

large steel structures as bridges, port machinery, and cargo-handling equipment, but they

also range as far as real estate holdings. For

corporate profiles and complete lists of all

business units under CSSC and CSIC, see

China State Shipbuilding Corp. (CSSC),

www.cssc.net.cn, and China Shipbuilding Industry Corp. (CSIC), www.csic.com.cn.

19. “Central Enterprises List,” State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), www.sasac.gov

.cn/zyqy/qyml/default.htm.

20. Medeiros et al., New Direction for China’s

Defense Industry, pp. 114–15.

21. The China Aviation Industry Corporation

(AVIC) was also divided in 1999, forming

AVIC I and AVIC II. There is little overlap

in product lines between the two companies, and competition is very limited; AVIC

I produces mainly combat aircraft, while

AVIC II tends to specialize in helicopters.

See Medeiros et al., New Direction for

China’s Defense Industry, p. 175.

22. “CSSC Aims to Be a Shipbuilding Leader

Globally,” SinoCast China Transportation

Watch, 14 February 2007. Also see “Asset

Injections Boost Listed SOEs,” Xinhua, 15

February 2007; and “China State Shipbuilding to Incorporate Its Business,”

SinoCast China Transportation Watch, 19

October 2005.

23. “China’s Drive toward World Dominance,”

Wärtsilä Marine News (March 2005), pp.

4–5; and Farah Song, “China Shipbuilding

‘Juggernaut’ Gains on Leaders Japan, Korea,” Bloomberg.com, 22 March 2005.

24. By deadweight, through 2006 China accounted for 20 percent of world tonnage

production, Japan 32 percent, and South

Korea 35 percent. See “Shanghai Company

Breaks into Shipbuilding Top 10,” China

Daily, 4 January 2007, available at

www.china.org.cn.

25. “South Korea Stays Top Shipbuilding Nation,” World Maritime News, 25 January

2008, http://www.worldmaritimenews.com.

26. “Getting Ship-Shape,” China Daily, 31 December 2003, Hong Kong edition, available

at www.chinadaily.com.cn.

27. Andrew Cutler, “World Leader by 2015?

Shipbuilding in the PRC & the YRD,” Business Guide to Shanghai and the YRD, October 2005, www.hfw.com/13/new/

new13c075.html; and China State Shipbuilding Corp., www.cssc.net.cn/english/

jtcy1-jd.php.
28. “Getting Ship-Shape”; Cai Shun, “Full

Steam Ahead,” Beijing Review 48, no. 10 (10

March 2005), p. 36.

29. Cutler, “World Leader by 2015?” For an example of a high-end, provincially administered shipyard group, see Fujian Shipbuilding Industry Group Co. (FSIGC), www

.fsigc.com.

30. Zhang Kai, “A Life and Death Test for

Jiangsu’s Shipbuilding Industry,” Mechanical and Electrical Equipment 3 (2006), p. 16.

31. Lloyd’s Register–Fairplay, Sea-web: The

Register of Ships Online, www.sea-web.com.

By Lloyd’s data, provincial and local shipyards produced 1,939,441 dwt from 1982 to

1999. Statistical accuracy for output from

these yards can be questionable in earlier

years, but the relative magnitude of increased production from provincial and local shipyards is certainly significant.

32. China Shipping Industry Co. (CIC), www

.csgcic.com/en/gsjj/index.htm; and Lloyd’s

Sea-web database.

33. Lloyd’s Sea-web database. For a complete

list of COSCO’s shipyards, see Barbara

Matthews, ed., World Shipping Directory

2006–2007 (Surrey, U.K.: Lloyd’s Register–

Fairplay, 2006), pp. 1-1027 through 1-1030;

and COSCO Group, www.cosco.com.

34. Yantai Raffles Shipyard, www.yantai-raffles

.com; and Hansa Treuhand–

Schiffsbeteiligungs AG & Co. KG, Die

Unternehmensgruppe (Corporate Profile),

2004, available at www.hansatreuhand.de.

35. Chen Wen, “Fueling the Engine,” Beijing

Review 49, no. 11 (March 2006), pp. 28–32;

and “Getting Ship-Shape.”

36. “Getting Ship-Shape.” NACKS Shipyard is a

fifty-fifty joint venture, illustrating that the

49 percent investment limitation was not

inflexible.

37. See “National Shipbuilding Group to Embrace More Opportunities and Challenges,”

People’s Daily, 29 January 2002; and “WTO

Boosts Ship Building,” People’s Daily, 15

October 2001, available at www.english

.people.com.cn.

38. Leo Zhang, “China to Limit Foreign Investment in Shipyards.”

39. “Tsuji Heavy Is First Foreign Yard to Build

Ships in China,” Lloyd’s List, 19 July 2006;

and the Tsuneishi Corporation, www

.tsuneishi.co.jp.

40. The exact number of Chinese-owned private shipyards is not clear. Major private

yards under Chinese ownership are included in tables 1 and 2. Additional

privatization at smaller provincial-level

yards is also known to be occurring. See European Industries Shaken Up by Industrial

Growth in China, p. 35; “Shipbuilding as

One of China’s Key Industries,” Toplaterne,

no. 80 (January 2006), pp. 5–8; and “Private

Enterprise Shipbuilding Group with Focus

on International Customers,” Toplaterne,

no. 80 (January 2006), p. 16. Both

Toplaterne articles available at www

.mak-global.com/news/pdf/toplaterne80e.pdf.

41. Leo Zhang, “China to Limit Foreign Investment in Shipyards.”

42. Ibid.

43. See European Industries Shaken Up by Industrial Growth in China, p. 41.

44. Lloyd’s Sea-web database. The other PLA

shipyards that have also previously built

commercial ships are PLA Navy Factory

4803 in Shantou, 4806 in Zhoushan, and

4810 in Dalian.

45. The term “province” is used loosely to also

include China’s direct-controlled municipalities and semiautonomous regions (i.e.,

Shanghai, Tianjin, and Chongqing municipalities and the Guangxi-Zhuang Autonomous Region).

46. “Coordination Stressed in Developing the

Yangtze River,” Xinhua, 22 November 2006.

47. Matthew Flynn, “From Two Different Rivers

Flow the Same Dreams,” Lloyd’s List, 31

January 2007.

48. See Marwaan Macan-Markar, “Sparks Fly

as China Moves Oil Up Mekong,” Asia

Times Online, 9 January 2007, www.atimes

.com/atimes.

49. “Analysis of Economic Operation of China’s

Shipbuilding Industry in First Half Year.”

50. Wu Qiang, “China Maps Out Ambitious

Goal for Shipbuilding Industry,” Xinhua, 24

September 2006; and “Getting Ship-Shape.”

51. For ownership, registry, and flag structure

of the world merchant fleet, see United Nations, Review of Maritime Transport 2006

(Geneva: United Nations Conference on

Trade and Development [UNCTAD],

2006), pp. 26–36.

52. “China to Deliver First Liquefied Natural

Gas Ship in September,” Xinhua, 19 February 2007, OSC-CPP20070219968046, Open

Source Center, www.opensource.gov.

A COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY OF CHINA’S DYNAMIC SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRY 47
48 CHINA MARITIME STUDIES

53. Geoffrey Murray, “China’s Largest Shipyard

Formed by Merger in Shanghai,” Kyodo

News Service (Tokyo), 13 April 2001, OSCJPP20010413000153, Open Source Center,

www.opensource.gov; and Lloyd’s Sea-web

database.

54. “Chinese Shipmakers Threaten Korea’s

High-Value Builders,” Chosun Iibo (Seoul),

1 March 2007, OSC-KPP0301971163, Open

Source Center, www.opensource.gov; and

“Current Capacity, Future Outlook for

Japanese, Chinese Shipbuilding Industries,”

Tokyo Sekai no Kansen, 9 March 2006,

OSC-FEA2006030902654, Open Source

Center, www.opensource.gov.

55. Wu, “China Maps Out Ambitious Goal for

Shipbuilding Industry.” Quoted list of ship

types is paraphrased from a larger list of

goals that also included marine power

systems, electronics, and other subcomponent systems. These additional systems are

discussed later in the paper.

56. Chen Xiaojin, as quoted by Murray,

“China’s Largest Shipyard Formed by

Merger in Shanghai.”

57. Regarding building docks, the No. 2 Yard at

Dalian Shipbuilding includes a dry dock

measuring 550 by eighty meters. This is

smaller than the 658.4-by-141.7-meter Dry

Dock 12 at Newport News Shipbuilding

used for building 102,000-ton Nimitz-class

carriers but significantly larger than the

310-by-42.1-meter (following expansion)

Dry Dock 1 at Babcock Rosyth, currently

scheduled to be used for final assembly of

the United Kingdom’s 65,000-tondisplacement Queen Elizabeth–class carriers. See Matthews, ed., World Shipping Diectory 2006–2007, pp. 1-1031 and 1-1323;

Richard Saunders, ed., Jane’s Fighting Ships

2006–2007 (Surrey, U.K.: Jane’s Information Group, 2006), pp. 829 and 871; and

Richard Beedall, “Future Aircraft Carrier

(CVF),” pts. 19 and 21, Navy Matters, navy

-matters.beedall.com/cvf1-09.htm.

58. For a complete discussion, see John Birkler

et al., Differences between Military and

Commercial Shipbuilding: Implications for

the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence

(Santa Monica, Calif.: RAND, 2005).

59. For full discussion, see Jeffrey K. Liker and

Thomas Lamb, Lean Manufacturing Principles Guide: A Guide to Lean Shipbuilding,

version 0.5 (Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan,

2000); and Richard Lee Storch et al., Ship

Production, 2nd ed. (Centreville, Md.: Cornell Maritime, 1995), esp. pp. 60–104.

60. For the evolution of shipyard design, see

Storch et al., Ship Production, pp. 161–94.

The term “greenfield” simply refers to

building on a previously undeveloped

site—that is, on a fresh, “green field.”

61. Medeiros et al., New Direction for China’s Defense Industry, pp. 130–31.

62. “Freer Thought and Strengthened Innovation

Will Allow China’s Shipbuilding Industry to

Develop Better and More Quickly,” China

Ships, no. 42.

63. Birkler et al., Differences between Military

and Commercial Shipbuilding, pp. 85–92.

This chapter provides a full discussion of

specialization versus integration of commercial and military shipbuilding.

64. In December 2006 CSSC’s HudongZhonghua Shipbuilding launched a Type

054 frigate and Type 071 LPD from the

same building dock as an LNG tanker.

65. Bath Iron Works, “Corporate History,”

Bath Iron Works: A General Dynamics Company, www.gdbiw.com/company_overview/

history/default.htm. In 2001 BIW opened

its new Land Level Transfer Facility adjacent to the original yard, and it now uses a

floating dry dock for ship launchings. Of

note, the only true “greenfield” shipyard

built in the United States since World War

II is the West Bank Facility of Northrup

Grumman’s Ingalls Shipbuilding in

Pascagoula, Mississippi (see Storch et al.,

Ship Production, pp. 165 and 168). The new

Aker Philadelphia Shipyard comes close, in

that it was built from the ground up after

completely leveling a portion of the former

Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. Only the navy

yard’s large graving dock was incorporated

into the new facility.

66. Based on review of blueprints and machinery list for a 209,000-dwt National Steel and

Shipbuilding Co. (NASSCO) Alaska-class

tanker, and the General Electric Company,

Propulsion Plant Manual for Spruance Class

(El Monte, Calif.: General Electric, 1976),

pp. 1-15 through 1-19. The Spruance class

is now decommissioned from U.S. Navy

service, but its GE LM2500 propulsion

plant is still widely used in U.S. ships as

well as in the PLAN Type 052 destroyer

Harbin. For a similar list of major machinery and subsystems on a smaller commercial ship (42,000-dwt product tanker), see

Roy L. Harrington, ed., Marine Engineering

(Jersey City, N.J.: Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, 1992), pp. 8–9.
67. Based on an interview with an industry official familiar with the FPSO project at

Dalian Shipbuilding.

68. European Industries Shaken Up by Industrial

Growth in China, p. 55.

69. See Dominic DeScisciolo, “Red Aegis,” U.S.

Naval Institute Proceedings 130, no. 7 (July

2004), pp. 56–58.

70. Many other issues beyond technical capability continue to influence China’s possible

aircraft carrier development. For a full discussion, see Andrew S. Erickson and

Andrew R. Wilson, “China’s Aircraft Carrier Dilemma,” Naval War College Review

59, no. 4 (Autumn 2006), pp. 13–45.

71. For full discussion of tanker and containership structures, see D. A. Taylor, Merchant

Ship Construction (London: Marine Management [Holdings], 1992), pp. 177–202.

72. Of note, several major Chinese steelmakers

have acquired financial interests in Chinese

shipyards as part of mutually beneficial alliances to ensure steady supplies and demand

for steel. Similarly, South Korean shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries recently

purchased a share of a Chinese steelmaker

in order to increase its access to cheap Chinese steel. See “Chinese Steelmakers Go

into Shipping for Cost Reduction,”

SinoCast China Transportation Watch, 8

February 2007; and “Rising Steel Price

Pushes South Korea to Import More from

China,” Steel Times International 30, no. 8

(November 2006), p. 6.

73. Saunders, ed., Jane’s Fighting Ships 2006–

2007, p. 764; and Eric Wertheim, ed., The

Naval Institute Guide to Combat Fleets of

the World 2005–2006 (Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2005), p. 798. Also see

Medeiros et al., New Direction for China’s

Defense Industry, pp. 143–44.

74. Zhang Xiangmu, Commission of Science,

Technology, and Industry for National Defense (CSTIND), as quoted by Wu, “China

Maps Out Ambitious Goal for Shipbuilding

Industry.”

75. Interview with a technical representative

for a shipowner currently building in

China.

76. Wang Haichao, “Good Periodic Results

Gained in the National Special Control

Campaign against Low Quality Ships,”

China Maritime Safety 8 (2006). The four

PRC agencies involved were the Ministry of

Transportation, Ministry of Agriculture,

National Security Supervisory Commission, and CSTIND.

77. “Houbei class (Fast Attack Missile Craft)

(PGGF),” entry in Jane’s Fighting Ships, 29

January 2007, from Jane’s Online, www

.janes.com.

78. Zhang Xiangmu, as quoted by Wu, “China

Maps Out Ambitious Goal for Shipbuilding

Industry.”

79. Wang Rongsheng, as quoted by Cai Shun,

“Full Steam Ahead,” pp. 36–37.

80. Zhang Chengyu and Zhao Dali, “Status Quo

and Development Way Forward for Marine

Equipment Sector in China,” Ship Engineering 27, no. 1 (2005), pp. 1–5. Also see Fan

Yuzhong, “Ship Equipment Service Networks Must Globalize,” China Water Transport 11(2006), pp. 38–39; and Zhang, “Life

and Death Test for Jiangsu’s Shipbuilding

Industry,” p. 16.

81. Zhang and Zhao, “Status Quo and Development Way Forward for Marine Equipment

Sector in China,” pp. 1–5; and Wu, “China

Maps Out Ambitious Goal for Shipbuilding

Industry.”

82. “Domestic Innovation Will Be the Basic

Force Helping China Become a Global Shipbuilding Power,” China Ships, no. 41 (19 October 2007), p. 1.

83. See James C. Bussert, “China Builds Destroyers around Imported Technology,” Signal 58, no. 12 (August 2004), pp. 67–69.

84. “China’s Naval Engineers: Helping the Navy

Sail Fast and Far,” Modern Navy (August

2005), pp. 17–20.

85. There are no universally accepted rpm break

points between low-, medium-, and highspeed diesels, but 300 and 1,000 rpm are

most typically used. See Alan L. Rowen,

“Diesel Engines,” in Marine Engineering, ed.

Harrington, pp. 91–145, esp. p. 94.

86. Includes both foreign-built engines and

those built in China under license. All commercial statistics for this section are derived

from Lloyd’s Sea-web database, and military

statistics from Saunders, ed., Jane’s Fighting

Ships 2006–2007, pp. 119–54; Wertheim, ed.,

Naval Institute Guide to Combat Fleets of the

World 2005–2006, pp. 101–28; SinoDefense

.com; and various earlier editions of Jane’s

Fighting Ships—unless otherwise stated.

87. John Jordan, “The People’s Liberation Army

Navy (PLAN),” Jane’s Intelligence Review 6,

no. 6 (June 1994), pp. 275–82.

A COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY OF CHINA’S DYNAMIC SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRY 49
50 CHINA MARITIME STUDIES

88. Todd, Industrial Dislocation, p. 218; and

“MAN Diesel Renews Low-Speed

Cooperations, Engages New Partner,” MAN

Diesel, www.manbw.com. Of note, MAN

and B&W merged in 1980 to become MAN

B&W; the combined company is now known

as MAN Diesel. Likewise, the diesel engine

division of Sulzer Brothers was spun off into

a separate company named New Sulzer Diesel (NSD) in 1990, was acquired by the

Wärtsilä diesel conglomerate of Finland in

1997, and is now known as Wärtsilä Switzerland Ltd.

89. Zhang and Zhao, “Status Quo and Development Way Forward for Marine Equipment

Sector in China,” pp. 1–5; and Patrik Wägar,

“Wärtsilä Enters New Era in Chinese Engine

Building and Ship Design,” Wärtsilä Marine

News (March 2005), pp. 14–16.

90. An unconfirmed report places two MTU

20V956TB92 diesels and two ZoryaMashproekt gas turbines on the Type 071.

See Prasun K. Sengupta, “China,” India Force

Magazine (October 2006), available at

www.forceindia.net/industry.asp.

91. Licensed use of SEMT-Pielstick designs is

certainly not limited to the PRC. SEMTPielstick engines are license produced

in six countries, including in the United

States by the Fairbanks Morse Engine Company under the Colt-Pielstick brand name.

Pielstick engines are used on the U.S. Navy’s

Whidbey Island and Harpers Ferry–class

LSDs, San Antonio–class LPDs, Henry J.

Kaiser–class AOs, and Bob Hope–class AKRs,

and they are to be used on the new LCS.

92. See James Mann, About Face: A History of

America’s Curious Relationship with China,

from Nixon to Clinton (1998; repr. New York:

Vintage Books, 2000), pp. 74–75. Of note,

the transfer of marine propulsion technology to Communist-bloc countries occurred

regularly throughout the Cold War. MAN,

B&W, and other Western-designed/built diesels were used on many Soviet and

COMECON merchant ships. The most famous examples are the Soviet freighters

Poltava and Omsk, with B&W diesel engines,

which carried SS-4 and SS-5 missiles to

Cuba in 1962. See Norman Polmar and John

D. Gresham, DEFCON-2: Standing on the

Brink of Nuclear War during the Cuban Missile Crisis (Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, 2006), pp.

66–68; and Ambrose Greenway, Soviet Merchant Ships, 3rd ed. (Hampshire, U.K.: Kenneth Mason, 1978), pp. 32–34.

93. The marine gas-turbine variant of the Spey

was first introduced on HMS Brave (F94) in

1990 and was subsequently used on all Batch

3, Type 21 Broadsword-class FFGs, and Type

23 Duke-class FFGs.

94. For full discussion, see DeVore, China’s

Aerospace and Defense Industry, pp. 67–71;

and Medeiros et al., New Direction for

China’s Defense Industry, pp. 170–74.

95. See Zorya-Mashproekt State Enterprise Gas

Turbine Research & Production Complex,

www.zmturbines.com; Wertheim, ed., Naval

Institute Guide to Combat Fleets of the World

2005–2006, pp. 109; and SinoDefense.com.

96. Yan Chengzhong, “QD-128: A Light Industrial Gas Turbine Derived from an

Aeroengine,” Aircraft Propulsion [Hangkong

Fadongji] 4 (2005), pp. 4–8. See also “The

Cradle of China’s Midsize Aeroengine Development: The Shenyang Propulsion Research and Design Institute,” in Mixed Motives, Uncertain Outcomes, ed. Brommelhorster

and Frankenstein, p. 1; and Yao Erchang,

“Development Prospects of the Large Capacity Gas Turbine Manufacturing Trade in

China,” Electrical Generation Equipment,

no. 4 (2004), pp. 181–85 [in Chinese].

97. Zhang, “Life and Death Test for Jiangsu’s

Shipbuilding Industry,” p. 16.

98. European Industries Shaken Up by Industrial

Growth in China, p. 31; and “Current Capacity, Future Outlook for Japanese, Chinese Shipbuilding Industries.”

99. Paul Sun Bo, as quoted by Stewart Brewer,

“China: Building for the Future,” Det

Norske Veritas, Forum, 19 July 2006, www

.dnv.com/publications. For a full discussion

of employment practices at Chinese shipyards (including case studies), see European

Industries Shaken Up by Industrial Growth

in China, esp. pp. 38–40 and 72–74.

100. “Staying in Touch with Talent: Academe

and Industry Combine Resources,” China

Ship News, no. 38, 28 September 2007, p. 9.

101. Ibid.

102. Zhang Xiangmu, as quoted by Wu, “China

Maps Out Ambitious Goal for Shipbuilding

Industry.” For a shipowner/ship broker perspective on business management issues in

China’s shipbuilding industry, see Purchasing Newbuildings in China: A Practical

Guide to the Key Commercial and Legal

Considerations (Neuilly-sur-Seine, France,

and Uxbridge, U.K.: Barry Rogliano Salles
Shipbrokers and Curtis Davis Garrard LLP,

March 2006).

103. Statistics based on correspondence with a

Western naval architecture firm’s representative operating in China, and the Society

of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers

(SNAME); they include four-year bachelor

degrees in naval architecture, ocean engineering, and shipbuilding technology.

104. The PRC had 122,208 seafarers in international commercial maritime trade as of

2005, or 9.96 percent of the world total

(number-one ranking). By comparison, the

United States contributed 20,560, or 1.68

percent of the world total. See International Labor Organization, Seafarers’ Wages

and Hours of Work and the Manning of

Ships Recommendation, 1996 (No. 187): Updating of the Minimum Basic Wage of Able

Seamen (Geneva: Joint Maritime Commission, 2006), p. 15.

105. Alfred Thayer Mahan, The Influence of Sea

Power upon History, 1660–1783, 5th ed.

(1890; repr. Boston: Little, Brown, 1894),

p. 45.

106. UNCTAD, Review of Maritime Transport

2006, p. x.

107. Ingalls is now part of Northrup Grumman

Ship Systems.

108. All Ingalls production statistics from

Northrup Grumman Ship Systems, Ingalls

Operations, www.ss.northropgrumman

.com/company/ingalls.html. Tarawa-class

tonnage is full-load displacement in metric

tons.

109. The authors thank Dr. Lyle Goldstein for

directing them to Chinese sources, including Guo Zhao Dong “The Apocalypse of

Transportation Support of the British

Army in the Malvinas Islands War,” National Defense Transportation Engineering

and Technology, no. 3 (2004), pp. 1–4. Also

see Medeiros et al., New Direction for

China’s Defense Industry, pp. 150–51. For

more on British use of merchant vessels in

the Falklands, see Roger Villar, Merchant

Ships at War: The Falklands Experience

(Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press,

1984).

110. CSSC, “CSSC’s Changxing Shipbuilding

Base,” www.cssc.net.cn/enlish/jtcy1-jd.php.

111. Paul Humes Folta, From Swords to Plowshares? Defense Industry Reform in the PRC

(Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 1992), p. 1.

112. Mahan, Influence of Sea Power upon History,

1660–1783, p. 48.

A COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY OF CHINA’S DYNAMIC SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRY 51

Acronyms and Definitions

A AKR commercial cargo ship

AO auxiliary oiler

AOR auxiliary replenishment oiler

AVIC Aviation Industry Corporation

B B&W Burmeister & Wain

BIW Bath Iron Works

C Capesize vessels bulk cargo ships that are too large (usually 150,000 dwt or bigger) for either the Suez Canal or Panama Canal and therefore

must round either the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn

CAST China Association of the Shipbuilding Trade

CG guided-missile cruiser

CGT compensated gross tons

CHISREP China Ship Reporting System

CIC China Shipping Industry Company

CMC Central Military Commission

CNO Chief of Naval Operations

CODOG combined diesel and gas turbine

COSCO China Ocean Shipping Company

COTS commercial off-the-shelf

CSIC China Shipbuilding Industrial Corporation (dominant from

Shanghai northward)

CSSC China State Shipbuilding Corporation (dominant from

Shanghai southward)

CSTC China Shipbuilding Trading Company
CSTIND Commission of Science, Technology, and Industry for National Defense

D DDG guided-missile destroyer

dwt deadweight tonnage (weight-carrying ability of a ship at its

limiting draft. With the exception of deadweight tonnage, tonnage for merchant ships is a measure of volume rather than

weight, and a “register ton” is equal to one hundred cubic feet,

in English units. It is intended as a measure of the cargo capacity of a ship and thus is an index of the ship’s earning capability. “Gross registered tonnage” is based on the total volume

within the enclosed ship’s structure. “Net registered tonnage”

is the gross tonnage minus the volume for machinery, crew

spaces, ship operations, etc., and is thus space available for

cargo [including passengers]. Gross and net tonnage are often

used as the basis for such charges as pilotage, wharfage, and

harbor fees)

F FFG guided-missile frigate

FPSO floating production, storage, and off-loading unit (floating oil

storage vessel for offshore projects where it is uneconomic to

build pipelines to the shore. An FPSO can store up to two million barrels of oil and is able to off-load oil directly into a

tanker)

G GT gross tonnage

H HI Heavy Industries

HHM Hudong Heavy Machinery

HSE health, safety, and environment

K KHI Kawasaki Heavy Industries

L LCS [U.S.] Littoral Combatant Ship

LCU landing craft utility

LNG liquefied natural gas

54 CHINA MARITIME STUDIES
LPD landing platform dock

LPG liquefied petroleum gas

LSD landing ship dock

LSM landing ship medium

LST landing ship tank

M MAN Maschinenbau Augsberg-Nuernberg

MWM Motoren Werk Mannheim

N NACKS Nantong-COSCO KHI Ship Engineering Company

NASSCO National Steel and Shipbuilding Co.

NSD New Sulzer Diesel

P PGGF patrol gunboat

PLA People’s Liberation Army

PLAN People’s Liberation Army Navy

PRC People’s Republic of China

PTG guided-missile patrol craft

R RMB renminbi (the Chinese currency unit)

Ro-Ro roll-on/roll-off

rpm revolutions per minute

S SAM surface-to-air missiles

SASAC State Owned Assets Supervision and Administration

Commission

SHP shaft horsepower

SSBN nuclear-powered ballistic-missile submarine

SSK hunter-killer submarine

SSN nuclear-powered attack submarine

A COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY OF CHINA’S DYNAMIC SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRY 55
T TEU twenty-foot-equivalent units

U ULCC ultralarge crude oil carrier (of greater than two million barrel

capacity)

USD U.S. dollars

USN U.S. Navy

V VLCC very large crude oil carrier (carrying up to about two million

barrels of oil)

VLS vertical-launch system

W WTO World Trade Organization

56 CHINA MARITIME STUDIES
About the Authors

Mr. Collins served from 2006 to 2008 as a research fellow in the China Maritime Studies Institute, focusing on energy and shipbuilding. During his period at the Naval War

College, Mr. Collins published a variety of studies in such forums as Jane’s Intelligence

Review, Orbis, Naval War College Review, U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, and Oil &

Gas Journal. In addition, he is coeditor of the book China’s Energy Strategy: The Impact

on Beijing’s Maritime Policies (Naval Institute Press, 2008). He is a 2005 honors graduate of Princeton University (AB, politics) and is proficient in Mandarin and Russian.

Lieutenant Commander Michael Grubb is a submarine officer currently stationed in

Bangor, Washington. He worked on this study as a student at the Naval War College

during 2006–2007. Another of his student papers, entitled “Merchant Shipping in a

Chinese Blockade of Taiwan,” was published in the Winter 2007 edition of Naval War

College Review. He received a BSE degree in naval architecture and marine engineering

from the University of Michigan and has previously served aboard the USS Miami

(SSN 755) and on the staff of Destroyer Squadron 22.