Shipbuilders ride wave of success
China DailyWorkers at the shipbuilding yard use another form of transport as they leave for a break at the Jiangsu Yangzi Xinfu Shipbuilding Corp in Taixing, Jiangsu province. In that period, China led the world in terms of vessel completion and orders, holding 49.7 percent of the global market in vessel completion, 67 percent of new orders and 54.4 percent of orders in hand, according to statistics from the China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry. Orders on hand for the country's shipbuilding industry reached a deadweight tonnage of 133.82 million by the end of October, an increase of 28.1 percent year-on-year. The country's shipbuilders exported a combined $21.14 billion worth of vessels in the first 10 months, up 21 percent from the same period last year, according to the association. In 2008, Hudong-Zhonghua completed the maiden delivery of China's first self-built liquefied natural gas carrier, the Dapeng Sun, breaking the duopoly of Japan and South Korea in LNG carrier manufacturing.