船舶设计公司:中国船厂不可或缺的合作伙伴

Chinese designers indispensable to builders

进入新世纪,中国船厂开始挑战日本在散货船建造方面的领导地位,并且自2006年起承接了全球大部分的散货船订单。在这一背景下,受益于中国船厂的主导地位,中国的船舶设计公司也成了市场关注的焦点,并且已经成为中国船厂必不可少的合作伙伴。中国船舶设计市场上世纪90年代起,中国船厂一直与本土船舶设计公司保持紧密的合作关系。因此,即使中国船厂开始承接越来越多的散货船订单,却鲜有外国设计公司能在中国市场占得一席之地。如图表所示,将中国船厂在2006年至15年第1季度间承接的散货船订单按设计公司类型划分（数据覆盖率约为75%）,仅有13%的订单采用的是外国设计公司的设计。

In the 2000s, Chinese builders started to challenge their Japanese competitors for the leading share of bulkcarrier contracts, and since 2006 have generally taken the majority of contracts placed globally. Against this backdrop, Chinese designers have also come into the spotlight, benefiting from China's leading role, and have become an indispensable partner to the Chinese builders. 'Yard-affiliated' designers, linked to particular yards, tend to focus more on larger vessel types, with the larger yards more likely to take orders for the bigger units and also have their own design houses(around 40% of bulker orders linked to 'yard affiliated' designs have been Capesizes). Meanwhile, independent designers are now actively diversifying into more specialized areas, with MARIC's 18,000 TEU containership designs at Waigaoqiao providing one example. Chinese builders, it appears, are still looking for close ties with their design partners to help them remain competitive globally.