Chinese companies continued to gain in the global marine engineering market and accounted for nearly a third of new engineering equipment orders globally last year, a recent report says.

According to data issued by the China Shipbuilding Industry Association on Feb 23, Chinese companies undertook marine engineering equipment orders worth more than $18 billion last year, accounting for 29.5 percent of the global market, up 16 percentage points over 2012. China also zoomed past Singapore to occupy the second position in the global marine engineering market.

Last year, Chinese shipbuilding enterprises received construction orders for 61 marine engineering platforms, with jack-up drilling platforms numbering 49, and accounting for more than half of the total.

“Jack-up rigs were extremely popular last year,” an association source said. “This year, the marine equipment market will remain active, and the floating marine equipment market will be particularly promising.”

Coinciding with the association’s findings was news that Wuchang Shipbuilding Industry Company Ltd has started work on a shallow water-drilling platform at its base in Qingdao for delivery to a Singaporean company in 2016.

This is the first time that Wuchang Shipbuilding of China has been chosen as the general contractor for marine drilling equipment, which means that Chinese shipbuilding enterprises have been improving their competitiveness in international high-end marine equipment manufacturing market.

As many countries are increasing emphasis on continental shelf resources, marine equipment manufacturing industry has entered a golden period of development.

Offshore oil and gas exploration and mining equipment development looks promising. Jack-up drilling platforms have strong locating abilities and operation stability, and it is of great importance in continental shelf oil and gas exploration and development. The strong market demand in recent years has attested to its popularity.

It is also a good time for companies to invest in marine equipment. Forty percent of the world’s drilling rigs on active service are more than 25 years old and nearly 200 jackup platforms are expected to replace them.

At present, most of the Chinese shipping enterprises are engaged in marine equipment making. Wuchang Shipbuilding built its Qingdao base in 2009. It has focused on marine engineering equipment as its main business.

Yang Zhigang, president of Wuchang Shipbuilding, says: “From marine vessel, marine equipment manufacturing to drilling platform contracting, over the years, Wuchang Shipbuilding has entered the core fields of marine industry, and established a complete marine industrial system, with seamless integration to world-class management standards.”

To further improve the company's technology and innovation capabilities, the company has joined leading global ship classification societies.

Last July, Wuchang Shipbuilding successfully delivered to Brazil’s state-owned petroleum company Petrobras, the world's largest floating underwater riser support system. Through the successful implementation of the project, the company has trained a number of international offshore project managers and technical personnel, which will help Wuchang Shipbuilding bag more high-end marine equipment manufacturing orders.

In high-end marine equipment manufacturing, Singapore and South Korea have been the key players.

Singapore accounts for 7 to 8 percent of the global offshore drilling platform construction market. In deep-sea drilling platforms, 90 percent of the global orders are with Korean firms.

But Zhang Zhiqiang, executive director of Blue Horizon offshore oil drilling says, China’s marine equipment manufacturing technology is now on par with Singapore and South Korea, with Chinese companies fast moving up the ladder in design and project management.

Contact the writer at liukun@chinadaily.com.cn

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