Video | The "Three Pearls" Have Been Gathered! How China's Shipbuilding Industry Is Moving Toward a Better and Stronger Future

Today, our country’s second domestically built large cruise ship, “Aida·Huacheng,” has officially been launched from the dock, entering a comprehensive stage of port construction and commissioning. According to the plan, “Aida·Huacheng” will begin sea trials in late May, with delivery expected before the end of the year. In the future, it will open international routes from Guangzhou Nansha as its home port.

In the shipbuilding industry, there are three types of ships often referred to as “the pearls on the crown of shipbuilding,” because they can directly reflect a country’s equipment construction capability and overall level of advanced technology: aircraft carriers, large liquefied natural gas (LNG) transport ships, and large cruise ships. In 2023, China completed the set of shipbuilding industry’s “three pearls.” It is the only country in the world that can build all three of these types of large ships at the same time. Where does China’s shipbuilding industry stand globally in the high-end manufacturing segment of the shipbuilding sector? What development outlook does it have in the future?

**Vice Chairman of the China Shipbuilding Industry Association, Li Yanqing: **Developing toward high-end and high value-added is the goal the Chinese shipbuilding industry has been striving for. Through efforts during the “13th Five-Year Plan” and the “14th Five-Year Plan,” China’s shipbuilding industry has almost covered the world’s major mainstream products, including high-value, high-end ones. Over the past five years, we have made up for the construction of large high-end cruise ships and large LNG transport ships, and we have occupied an absolute leading position in green and low-carbon vessels. So, overall, in the current high-end ship and offshore engineering market, China’s shipbuilding industry has already played the role of the main pillar, and it will continue developing in the direction of becoming better and stronger.

In terms of this future development in the high-end market, it will mainly be achieved by strengthening technological innovation to enhance China’s capability to provide products to the global maritime industry. Specifically, for example, in the large-scale development of LNG transport ships—reducing the evaporation rate, improving transport efficiency, and so on—there is a whole set of technological innovations involved. In addition to the technologies we currently use, we also need more China-originated, independently developed technologies to further enhance this.

Take large cruise ships, for instance as well. We need to build the supply-chain system in a more open way, and use higher-quality standards to screen globally high-level suppliers to enter such a supply-chain system. That is to say, we need to form a series of industrial ecosystems around China’s distinctive cruise-ship economy and the foundation of our own manufacturing industry, and all of this is very important for our future development. In terms of green and intelligent technologies, we still need further improvement, thereby fundamentally enhancing the safety and efficiency of vessels.