China rescues endangered yards

Shipbuilding has been identified as one of ten mainstay industries that the Chinese State Council will pump urgent cash into in order to stave off disaster, local media has reported. China has made plain its aims to be the largest shipbuilder by 2015 and has a huge raft of new yards in the pipeline. However, since the third quarter of last year the nation?s shipbuilders have been hit hard by countless order cancellations in the wake of the global financial crisis.

The draft of the rescue plan for the shipbuilding industry had been completed by the National Development and Reform Commission and will be rolled out shortly before or after the Lunar New Year. Essentially, it appears that the state owned shipping lines will be forced to prop up the yards, pledging further orders to pick up the international slack. The Export-Import Bank of China is also likely to inject extra cash to the shipyards.