Spectacles. That is the image that I am left with after just a few days in China. Someone with poor eyesight has a handicap but, with the right spectacles, they can see as well as someone with perfect vision.

Every shipowner I have met who has ordered ships in Chinese yards brings up the question of quality and how they need to put in more supervision and attention than they would in yards elsewhere. But they are equally all agreed that, if they do that, they will get a quality ship.

That supervision and effort form the two lenses of the spectacles that bring Chinese shipbuilding into focus. With them in place, Chinese yards can look to the international market. Andy Westwood, DNV vice president and maritime regional manager for the Greater China area, says that concerns over quality should be more specific. "If it’s just talk, it is self perpetuating," he said. The fact is, "there’s a train coming through here. Do you stand on the platform, get on as a passenger or get in and help drive?"

What became clear during our visits was that Chinese yard managers are not afraid of asking for driving lessons. They readily accept that their productivity and yard management skills still lag behind those of South Korea and Japan and but are applying market economy principles as they build and staff new facilities that will be more productive and have huge capacities.

It may take – as one yard manager said – decades for China to reach comparable management and technical standards as their two rivals but, in straightforward output terms, their goals are more immediate. By 2015, they will be giving Korea and Japan a close fight, and they don’t need to borrow any spectacles to set their sights on that aim.

Date: 01 December 2003