China emerges astop ship producer

China has become the largest shipbuilder in terms of ship production and ship orders, but still needs time to grow into a real superpower in the industry, said a senior official with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) on Sunday.

China finished building 65.6 million DWT (deadweight tons) from January to December last year, rising 54.6 percent year on year and accounting for 43 percent of the deadweight capacity of ships built in the world, said Li Dong, vice-director of MIIT's equipment industry department.

In 2010, China received orders for ship construction with a 75.2 million DWT, representing 54 percent of the new orders in the world. The country's unfulfilled orders for ships stood at 195.9 million DWT by the end of last year, accounting for 41 percent of the unfulfilled orders for ships in the world.

China has surpassed South Korea by new orders and orderbook of ships since last year.

According to Li, China is looking to move from being a great sea power to a shipbuilding superpower during its 12th Five-Year plan.

However, the country still lags behind other shipbuilding powers in terms of innovation ability and technology improvement, he said.