China Unveils Detailed Plan for Boosting Shipbuilding Industry

BEIJING, June 5 -- China unveiled Thursday its detailed stimulus plan for the shipbuilding sector, an agenda for helping shipbuilders to cope with the global financial crisis.

    Under the three-year stimulus plan, China will encourage eligible companies to list and sell bonds, and also accelerate the establishment of shipbuilding-focused investment funds.

    The plan also aims to augment the construction of maritime engineering equipment. China is setting a course to snatch up 10 percent of the world's maritime engineering equipment market by 2011. The current market share remains unknown.

    Meanwhile, China plans to control new shipbuilding capacity. Large shipbuilders are urged to execute mergers and acquisitions and conduct restructurings. Chinese banks are asked to grant loans to overseas enterprises to buy ships built in China.

    China will also speed up the decommission and replacement of old ships to boost domestic demand.

    According to the plan, the dock expansion projects excluded in the 10-year shipbuilding industry development plan (2006-2015) should be suspended for three years, in case of an excessive capacity.

    Some main contents of the shipbuilding stimulus plan were already known to the public. On February 11, China's State Council approved in principle the shipping industry stimulus package as one of the 10 sector-specific packages extended to combat the global financial crisis.

    (Source: chinamining.org)