Assessing the cost competitiveness of China’s Shipbuilding Industry

Cost has a significant impact on competitiveness within the shipbuilding industry. In China, low costs have created favourable conditions for domestic shipyards competing in the international market. However, China’s shipbuilders have been facing rising cost pressures in recent years, which may affect their industrial competitiveness. In this article, we assess China’s shipbuilding cost and its impact on the competitiveness of China’s shipbuilding industry. We make comparisons with China’s major competitors, South Korea and Japan, over the period from 2000 to 2009. First, we analyse principal factors that affect shipbuilding cost. Second, we examine the changes in China’s shipbuilding cost over the time period. Finally, we use shipbuilding cost and market share as the basis for analysing the competitiveness of the shipbuilding industry. The results reveal the sources and limiting factors of China’s cost advantage, as well as changes in its shipbuilding cost and competitiveness.Shipbuilding cost; industry competitiveness; China’s shipbuilding industry

Price Formation of Dry Bulk Carriers in the Chinese Shipbuilding Industry

In this paper we present, for the first time, the price formation of China’s dry bulk carrier using vessel prices quoted by major Chinese shipyards in actual shipbuilding orders. This allows us to investigate the relationship of price and determinants in the Chinese shipbuilding industry by including generic market factors as well as Chinese elements. The analysis, employing Principal Component Regression (PCR) approach, indicates that the time charter rate has the most significantly positive impact. While increases in other four factors, namely shipbuilding cost, price cost margin, shipbuilding capacity utilization and credit rate, have descending order of positive influences. Different from traditional perception, we assert that the most important role of time charter rate plays mainly attributes to the ‘China Factor’ in bulk carrier sector. In addition, simulations are performed to investigate what would happen to the Chinese dry bulk carrier prices under changes of time charter rate and shipbuilding cost. This paper has implications for the Chinese shipyards, shipbuilding industry customers and industry policy makers. Acknowledgment - This research is partly funded by the Chinese Scholarship Council and TORM Foundation.Price Formation, Dry Bulk Carrier, Chinese Shipbuilding Industry

Australian naval shipbuilding since the 2013 election: a quick guide

This Quick Guide provides an overview of the Australian naval shipbuilding industry since the 2013 federal election. Specifically, three key questions are addressed: What is the current status of naval shipbuilding and sustainment within Australia? What are the positions of Australian political parties and independents regarding naval shipbuilding? What is likely to be done in the future

The Iron and Steel Shipbuilding Data Set, 1825-1914: Sources, Coverage, and Coding Decisions

This article is a supporting document to my paper “Selection and Firm Survival. Evidence from the Shipbuilding Industry, 1825-1914”, Review of Economics and Statistics, 87(1):26-36, February 2005. The article provides a basic description of data sources, coverage and limitations, along with coding decisions made for the purposes of statistical analysis. The data are available at http://www.fiu.edu/~thompsop/data/shipbuilding/shipbuilding.html.

The Shipbuilding Industry in East and West: Industry Dynamics, Science and Technology Policies and Emerging Patterns of Cooperation

Shipbuilding has changed from a "heavy industry" to become a capital- and technologyintensive activity over the last decades. While Japanese, South Korean and Western European yards dominate the merchant shipbuilding market so far, Eastern European yards are increasingly active, in particular in low and medium complex ships. We develop a market analysis and identify the axes of competition in international civil shipbuilding. From there, we analyze the restructuring process of Eastern European yards. Polish yards have proceeded with relatively quick enterprisation, establishing strong links to domestic and international suppliers. Restructuring in Russian and Ukrainian yards is blocked by local obstacles to enterprization, leading to increasing competitiveness gaps with CEE-yards. We conclude that a science&technology policy should be demand-oriented and target only the clearly identified obstacles to enterprization.

Collective Representations, Divided Memory and Patterns of Paradox: Mining and Shipbuilding

This paper seeks to examine the different relationship of two industries to their potential for representation and celebration in collective memory. Looking at case studies of mining and shipbuilding in the shared location of Wearside the paper compares and contrasts features of the two industries in relation to the divergent outcomes of the traces of their collective memory in this place. Using visual representations the paper makes the case that the mining industry has experienced a successful recovery of memory. This is contrasted to the paucity of visual representation in relation to shipbuilding. The reasons for the contrast in the viability of collective memory are examined. Material, cultural and aesthetic issues are addressed. Contrasts are drawn between divisions of labour in the two industries and the ways in which these impact upon community and trade union organisation which further relate to the contrast between industrial and occupational identity. Differences in the legacy of the physical occupational communities of the two industries are illustrated. There is also an examination of the aesthetic forms of representation in which mining is seen as characterised by the aesthetics of labour, whereas shipbuilding is represented more through the aesthetics of product. The way in which the industries were closed also becomes important to understand the variation in the differences of the potential of collective memory. All of these strands are brought together to conclude that in relation to the potential for collective memory, mining can be seen to have gone through a process of 'mourning' whereas melancholia seems to more adequately represent the situation with respect to shipbuilding. In illustrating these cases the paper is arguing for a more sophisticated understanding of the process of deindustrialisation and the potential for the recovery of collective memory.Collective Memory, Mourning, Melancholia, Deindustrialization, Post-Industrial Community, Locality, Mining, Shipbuilding

From the old path of shipbuilding onto the new path of offshore wind energy? The case of northern Germany

Wind energy-related employment has been surging recently in Germany: it rose from 9,200 in 1997 to 90,000 in 2007 and is estimated to be 112,000 in 2020. The industry particularly emerged in coastal, northern Germany. Recently big hopes are particularly set on the offshore wind energy industry. Two recently discussed evolutionary concepts explain the emergence of new industries, such as wind energy, in space in different ways: the windows of locational opportunity concept stresses the locational freedom in the earliest stages of industrial development, whereas path creation emphasises the role of existing industrial development paths, such as shipbuilding, from which new paths, such as wind energy, emerge. The paper aims at analysing whether the new path of offshore wind energy emerged out of existing paths, mainly shipbuilding, in the five states of coastal Germany. It concludes that shipbuilding only indirectly affected the emergence of the new development path of offshore the wind energy industry in northern Germany.

A comparison between single sided and double sided friction stir welded 8mm thick DH36 steel plate

As part of an ongoing process to fully evaluate the potential for friction stir welding (FSW) to be used in the shipbuilding industry, a comparison has been made between two variants of the process. 8mm thick DH36 steel plate was friction stir welded using a single sided and a double sided process. An assessment of the processes was made to report on the resultant distortion behaviour, hardness, yield strength, toughness and microstructure. As a further comparison, additional work on 8mm thick submerged arc welded (SAW) DH36 plate has been included as the current shipbuilding benchmark. The overall process feasibility will be assessed including the issue of the requirement to rotate the workpiece through 180° to complete the second side of the double sided process

Shipbuilding 4.0 Index Approaching Supply Chain

The shipbuilding industry shows a special interest in adapting to the changes proposed by the industry 4.0. This article bets on the development of an index that indicates the current situation considering that supply chain is a key factor in any type of change, and at the same time it serves as a control tool in the implementation of improvements. The proposed indices provide a first definition of the paradigm or paradigms that best fit the supply chain in order to improve its sustainability and a second definition, regarding the key enabling technologies for Industry 4.0. The values obtained put shipbuilding on the road to industry 4.0 while suggesting categorized planning of technologies

Sustainability challenges and how Industry 4.0 technologies can address them: a case study of a shipbuilding supply chain

The shipbuilding industry is under significant economic pressure and in need of more efficient solutions to secure economically sustainable operations. It is also challenged by social issues and the need for a greener maritime industry is critical. Accordingly, the shipbuilding industry is pressured across all three dimensions of sustainability. This paper aims to identify the sustainability challenges in shipbuilding supply chains and explore how Industry 4.0 technologies can impact the sustainability of shipbuilding. This is achieved through a case study of a shipbuilding supply chain, which results in the identification of its primary sustainability challenges. Further, this work proposes a set of nine digital solutions to support sustainable operations in shipbuilding as the paper’s primary contribution. This lays the foundation for further empirical research on sustainability and digitalization in shipbuilding, while for practice the paper provides enhanced insight into how Industry 4.0 technologies can be adopted in shipbuilding supply chains.acceptedVersio