The initiative offers a subsidy for new vessels when ships are sent for domestic demolition and will now run until the close of 2017, the Ministry of Transport says.
Cosco has been one of the major owners to take advantage of the project, with its order for 13 newbuildings of 20,000 teu reported by TradeWinds on Friday its latest use of the regulation.
The initiative was originally set up to encourage the renewal of China’s domestic fleet but is also viewed as a means of supporting the country’s shipbuilding sector.
According to Clarksons Research Services China has won the largest share of global newbuilding orders every year since 2006.
Its orders peaked in 2007 at 107 million dwt and its yards netted 54% of global contracts in 2009, Clarksons Research says.
“However, in the year to date Chinese yards have won contracts for 114 vessels of just 5.5m dwt, a fall of 83% year-on-year in dwt terms,” Alex Springer said in a report on 17 June.
“This can be explained in part by the weakness of global contracting in 2015 so far, which is down 58% in dwt terms year-on-year.
“However, China has suffered more than its rivals, having contracted just 19% of global tonnage in the year to date, compared to shares of 53% and 20% accounted for by South Korea and Japan respectively.”
