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CCSC, which ranked fifth in the world in 2005, finished manufacturing 103 new ships for civil use, about 6.02 million dead weight tons (dwt) in total, last year, accounting for 43 percent of China's total output and 8.2 percent of the world's total.

The company currently holds orders worth more than 150 billion yuan, amounting to 30 million dwt in total, the second largest, behind Hyundai Heavy Industries.

Even its two shipbuilding bases under construction, namely Changxing in Shanghai and Longxue in Guangzhou, have orders in hand, involving seven million dwt ordinary vessels and four very large crude oil carriers each with a designed capacity of 308,000 dwt.

CSSC, parent company of 60 subsidiaries covering ship building, ship repair, research and development and offshore engineering, posted a profit of more than five billion yuan last year, more than 60 times that of 1999 when it was established.

The Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Company, one of its subsidiaries,, is China's largest dockyard. It delivered ships totaling 3.12 million dwt last year.

The group's first liquefied natural gas (LNG) ship with a capacity of 47,200 cubic metres, a flagship product with proprietary intellectual property rights, is due to be delivered in the end of 2007.

Another four such LNG vessels are under construction while the research and development for LNG ships with a capacity of 200,000 cubic meters is underway.

By 2015, CSSC hopes it can grow into the world's largest shipbuilding conglomerate and turn China into the largest shipbuilding power, according to a company spokesman.

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