According to Asia Times, China's shipbuilding industry could be overextended in three years amid a booming global demand for new vessels.
China's shipbuilding capacity will exceed 40 million deadweight tons (DWT) a year in 2010 if new shipyards planned by investors are completed, according to data from China Association of National Shipbuilding Industry.
Ship production in China, the world's No 3 shipbuilding country after Japan and South Korea, climbed by 20% to 14.52 million.
DWT last year from 2005, grabbing 19% of the world's total. Vessels for export amounted to 11.71 million DWT and the whole sector's profits more than doubled to 9.6 billion yuan (US$1.26 billion) in 2005.
The prediction of 40 million DWT is nearly twice that of a government study released last September that projected a total shipbuilding capacity of 23 million DWT at the end of the decade.
Three-fifths of the total shipbuilding capacity in China is controlled by two state-run groups - China Shipbuilding Industry Corp and China State Shipbuilding Corp.
Source: Asia Times