China to introduce shipbuilding licensing system

China will implement a new shipbuilding licensing system instead of the current inefficient one in order to boost the growth of the shipbuilding industry, Shanghai Securities Journal reported yesterday.

The State Commission of Science and Technology for the National Defense Industry announced draft rules on the shipbuilding licensing management, said the newspaper.

The draft regulations only allow firms which have the specific shipbuilding licenses to engage in ship building.

China encourages domestic shipbuilding firms to apply advanced equipment and technologies, as well as modern management expertise, according to the drafts. It also encourages them to eliminate out-dated production equipment or capacities and upgrade the industry structure.

The drafts stipulate that firms without shipbuilding licenses are prohibited from production. Manufacturers, which use faked shipbuilding licenses or get the production permit illegally, should be fined between RMB 100,000 (US$13,228) and RMB 500,000 (US$66,138). And the people directly involved should be fined between RMB 20,000 and RMB 100,000.

The shipbuilding output in China increased by 43% to 7.55 million dead weight tons (dwt) in the first half of this year. Exports of shipbuilding was 6.26 million dwt, 83% of the nation’s total, said the newspaper.

China won totally 42.62 million dwt shipbuilding orders in the first half, up 165% compared with the same period of last year. The orders from overseas were 39.13 million dwt, accounting for 92% of total orders.

The total Incomes of major shipbuilding firms rose 48% to RMB 101.7 billion in the first half, and net profit jumped 151% to RMB 6.4 billion in total.