Simon Liang News

As the shipping market continues its prolonged downturn five shipyards have filed for bankruptcy this year, reports SCMP. China's leading private shipyards are gasping while watching their smaller rivals collapse one after another in an industry where state firms are increasingly raising the stakes. Simon Liang, the chairman of Jiangsu-based Sinopacific Shipbuilding Group said that the environment for private companies has never been supportive, but it has taken a turn for the worse recently. Surpassing Japan and South Korea by exported tonnage, China rose to become the world’s top shipbuilding nation during the last trade boom. The triumph came at the expense of relentless, and often inferior, capacity expansion, especially in the private sector.

On April 28, 2015, Sinopacific Shipbuilding Group (SINOPACIFIC) held a christening and delivery ceremony for a newly built SPA150 AHTS, constructed for shipowner FEMCO Group. This first SPA150 vessel is not only the first of this design to be delivered in the world, but is also the first of a series of four vessels contracted by FEMCO Group. Representatives from the Government, banks, shipowner, classification society, supervisors, suppliers, brokers and media, as well as other related parties, were present at SINOPACIFIC’s Zhejiang Shipbuilding base and witnessed this rather memorable moment.

An IMR GPA696 was recently christened and delivered at Dayang Shipbuilding Co. on October 15, 2014, a significant milestone in that the ship is the 200th ship built since the company was founded 10 years ago. Representatives from the government, banks, Bourbon, BV, supervisors and suppliers were on hand. Dayang Shipyard is one of the construction bases of the Sinopacific Shipbuilding Group (SINOPACIFIC). The vessels delivered by Dayang have all been for international clients, and include 142 bulk carriers…

Sinopacific Shipbuilding Group (SINOPACIFIC) has recently signed a contract with Singaporean company Vallianz Holdings Limited (Vallianz) for the construction of 4 SPA60 vessels. The vessels will be built in SINOPACIFIC’s Zhejiang Shipyard and all of them are expected to be delivered from the end of 2014 to the beginning of 2015. It is the first order SINOPACIFIC has gained from the Southeast Asian market for its in-house “SP-design”, which is a testimony to the steadily increasing reputation of the “SP-designed” vessel in the industry. SINOPACIFIC is currently one of the few Chinese shipbuilding enterprises that have independent design capabilities from conceptual design through to production.

The SINOPACIFIC Shipbuilding Group signed a newbuilding contract of 4 SPP35 platform supply vessels (PSV) and a Letter of Intention of 2 large SPP50 PSVs with SLOK Nigeria Ltd. The six vessels are scheduled to be delivered by the end of 2014. This marks the first time that independently designed offshore supply vessel (OSV) products of SINOPACIFIC direct selling to the African market, signifying the growing maturity and acceptance of the SP brand within the market. Over the past two years, SINOPACIFIC has successfully sold 20 similar vessels. Reportedly, the two newly contracted types will be built at SINOPACIFIC’s Dayang Shipyard. “Dayang has been focusing on efficiently building bulk carriers.

Cooperation between China and Japan on shipbuilding technology opens a new chapter; SINOPACIFIC Shipbuilding Group has joined hands with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to start the optimization of the CROWN MHI 82 bulk carrier design. On March 12, SINOPACIFIC Shipbuilding Group Chairman and CEO Mr. Simon Liang and Mr. Hisashi Hara, Representative Director（Member of The Board）, Executive Vice President and Head of Shipbuilding & Ocean Development from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) signed a joint development agreement on the planned design optimization of the CROWN MHI 82 in Tokyo, Japan. This is a new attempt of technical cooperation between Chinese and Japanese shipbuilding enterprises.

Sinopacific Shipbuilding Group, Leading the Supramax Bulk Carrier Market, Secures Order for 4+2 Crown 63 Ships. Sinopacific Shipbuilding Group secured an order for 4+2 Crown 63 (63,500 DWT) Supramax bulk carriers from a foreign ship owner on October 8. The Crown 63 is a new generation bulk carrier which is self designed by Sinopacific Shipbuilding Group. This ship became the focus of attention from around the shipping world as soon as it was introduced on the market, and many orders were quickly received for it.

“Shipbuilding enterprises must be able to handle any strong waves that come their way, and their ships must be solidly built yet be able to move flexibly. Since 2008, the Chinese shipbuilding industry has experienced many ups and downs. The first was the big increase in shipbuilding steel material prices in 2008, with the prices at some steel producers reaching 10,000 RMB per ton, resulting in price increases of 21% to 30% over four months. The next challenge was the slump of the international shipping market in 2009 as impacted by the global financial crisis…

Ningbo, April 29, 2011 —— On the morning of 29 April, Sinopacific Shipbuilding Group, China’s leading private shipbuilding enterprise held the ship naming ceremony at its Zhejiang Shipyard for GPA696, the global first fabricated model of Offshore Support Vessel(OSV) built for France’s Bourbon Company. Afterwards, a sea trial event was also held for another global first fabricated OSV, the SX130. Attending this event were Ningbo Mayor Liu Qi, Sinopacific Shipbuilding Group Chairman and CEO Simon Liang…

It might be hard to judge now if the global shipbuilding industry is recovering, but an encouraging story is certainly taking place in China in 2010. According to Clarkson Research Services, China overtakes Korea as the world's top shipbuilder in the first half of 2010 and kept ahead in terms of three major industry indicators, including new orders, order backlogs and delivery. As China’s leading private shipbuilding company, Sinopacific Shipbuilding Group is a significant driving engine of the industry development and made a rapid growth in the past year.

A growing global focus on the low carbon economy has sparked greater awareness of the low-carbon trend among shipbuilders. Recently various international maritime conventions and standards, such as the convention on greenhouse gas emissions, PSPC and Ballast Water Management, have been issued that greatly impact the global shipbuilding industry. Many shipbuilding companies are investigating new approaches to reducing fuel consumption, carbon emissions and operating costs, to enhance safety and achieve environmentally neutral operation while maintaining ship speed and increasing load capacity. To meet this objective, Sinopacific Shipbuilding Group recently proposed a new Load-to-Value (LTV) concept, a load efficiency factor that indicates such trend in the shipbuilding industry.