Rough seas ahead for struggling shipyards

Experts sound alarm as first State-owned shipbuilder goes under in a decade

Shipyards in China will continue to lag behind their foreign rivals as cumbersome financing conditions and prolonged excess capacity continue to crimp industry profits and push smaller shipyards out, experts said.

Zhoushan Intermediate People's Court announced last week that it had accepted an application from Zhejiang Shipping Group Co to liquidate its subsidiary Wuzhou Shipbuilding and Maintenance Co, making it the first State-owned shipyard to go bankrupt since 2005.