YARDS WARNED ON QUALITY

[proud_ionian]

Source: MGN

LEADING maritime industry figures speaking in China have urged global shipbuilders and suppliers not to let the current shipping boom distract them from what must remain their top priority: the construction of quality vessels.

The comments, made at the 7th annual meeting of Lloyd’s Register Asia’s China National Committee (CNC), came as global shipbuilding capacity was set to eclipse 50 million compensated gross tons next year, raising concerns about the number of inexperienced yards entering the market and the growing pressure to find increasingly scarce skilled workers.

Zhang Guangqin, the President of the China Association of National Shipbuilding Industry, said with the appreciation of the Yuan, rising interest rates, and surging raw material and labour costs already threatening to curb the global appetite for new ships, any slip in shipbuilding quality could bring an end to the current demand cycle.

“Quality issues are the best excuses for ship owners to stop ordering and, with so many challenges emerging for the yards to manage, strengthening quality management should be the most urgent and important task,” Mr Zhang told delegates in Sanya, Hainan Island. “This year needs to be the Year of Quality for China’s marine industries.”

The CNC meeting hosted by Lloyd’s Register was attended by more than 40 of the country’s top builders, owners and designers who collectively challenged the industry to renew its commitment to quality, noting that failure to do so would reach beyond the industry to adversely impact on the overall ‘Made in China’ brand.

Delegates also heard from George Sarris, the President of Enterprises Shipping and Trading, one of the five largest shipping groups in Greece.

Mr Sarris commended the Chinese shipbuilding industry for quickly reaching the ambitious goals the government had set for it, while urging newcomers to the market to use the world’s elite yards as their quality benchmarks, rather than the achievements of a rival new yard.

“You, gentlemen, have set your targets and you have achieved them. But this unprecedented achievement has to be safeguarded by all stakeholders and certain precautions now have to be taken to ensure that it serves as the foundation for a better and more illustrious future,” Sarris said. “It is very important to always bear in mind that it takes many years to build up a reputation and only one instant to ruin it.”

He also called for classification societies to play a more proactive role in helping to establish quality safeguards and systems to support the industry in China, where about 30% of the 160-million-dwt order book at the end of last year had been reportedly contracted to yards that have yet to build a ship.