The total tonnage of merchant ships in global shipping is now about 22 million tons, and the total number of ships has not increased much in recent years, only about 220.

In this way, the average tonnage of each merchant ship is about 100,000 tons.

Internationally, there is even a bit of an oversupply of merchant shipping.

But when these words came out of the mouth of the ship king, they could not help but make people pay attention to them.

"The development direction of freight merchant ships needs to reduce transportation costs, especially in the process of each voyage, aside from the depreciation of the ship, fuel is the biggest cost, and at the same time, the requirements for environmental protection are getting higher and higher......," the ship king gave a clear opinion.

The 100,000-ton ore ship at Hudong Shipyard does not have much international competitiveness.

Whether it is economic performance, environmental protection, or even cruising speed, etc., it is only at a medium level.

Although the job has been handed over, the ship king still ordered two 100,000-ton container ships on behalf of Global Shipping Company, each priced at $28.5 million.

"International trade, now because the economic development of various countries has come to a standstill, especially the US stock market crash last year, which has hit the economic development of the whole world hard. However, the biggest market should be China's ......, which is developing rapidly", after the visit in the evening, the ship king exchanged views with Li Qingming and others about the development and future of the world's marine transportation.

The world's largest shipping company, with the largest fleet, has a very clear understanding of the development of the entire industry.

What's more, the king of ships itself is not from the shipping professional, when there is no capital, it started with a second-hand coal-burning ship that has been used for 28 years and has a deadweight of 8,200 tons, and finally became the world's first ship king.

As a layman to today, if there is no outstanding ability, no one believes it.

Aristotle Onassis, the late Greek ship king, who was also self-made, once said to the ship king: "Although I am earlier than you in the fleet, I am only a peanut compared to you." ”

This shows Pao's status in the international shipping industry.

After communicating with the ship king, Li Qingmin and others also knew the development direction of merchant ships.

At present, the world's shipping companies, when the economic crisis brings about a decline in international trade, the business is naturally not much better.

"The Chinese market is indeed in high demand, especially for the export of a large number of light industrial products. However, in the international market, the growth will definitely be very large, just like the original Greek ship king, because after World War II, he saw the oil transportation, so he once became the world ship king. Xie Kai nodded and said.

China's rapid economic growth will continue for at least 30 years.

In the future, whether it is a mineral sand ship, an oil tanker, or a container ship, there will be a great demand.

This may not be seen by the king of ships.

Not everyone knows what will happen in the future.

The whole world believes that China is rich in resources, and has always been exporting basic raw materials such as ores, and it is impossible to become a pure importer, and at its peak, it even imports hundreds of millions of tons of iron ore a year.

"Therefore, my advice to you is that you should rely on the demand of China's domestic market, first make steady progress, have a market, continue to make technological breakthroughs, and then enter the international market. The Ship King earnestly advises everyone.

At present, Hudong Shipyard has no international competitiveness in merchant ships at all.

As long as you can seize domestic orders, get orders, and continuously improve technology, it will be much easier to enter the global market when the time is ripe in the future.

"At present, the world's shipbuilding industry, the most advanced large oil tankers, ore carriers and other technologies, are in the hands of shipyards in Japan and South Korea, and the United States and Europe are not good at these aspects. If you have the opportunity, you can also learn from shipbuilding companies in Japan......"

For the advice of the boat king, everyone else is grateful.

Zheng Yucheng didn't think so.

It's not that he thinks there's anything wrong with the Ship King's suggestion, it's that the Ship King doesn't understand their situation.

What is lacking in the Chinese shipbuilding industry now is not orders, but technology, technology that can manufacture large transport ships that are needed in the international market.

China's exports and imports are surging every year, and the demand for shipping is naturally very large.

Even China's domestic ocean shipping companies can only choose to order large merchant ships from abroad, who says that there is no domestic production.

"In the future, our carrier business cannot rely on the support of friendly orders, but still need to seek more market orders, so as to drive the development of the entire shipyard. ”

After coming down, even though it was very late, Xie Kai, Zheng Yucheng and the others did not rest.

The meaning of the ship king is to let Hudong Shipyard first strive for orders from domestic ocean shipping companies, after all, domestic ocean shipping companies, because of their financial strength is not strong, they are also powerless for large cargo ships with higher prices in the world.

But at present, there is no market for ore ships and large oil tankers because there is almost no import business in China.

In the era of the shortage of foreign exchange in the country, the state even sold primary ore and exported oil in exchange for foreign exchange, how could it be possible to use precious foreign exchange to import oil and ore?

Otherwise, when the Iraqis used crude oil to pay for equipment, Xie Kai would not have sold all the crude oil so helplessly.

How nice it is to ship it directly back to China.

Low-cost crude oil shipped back to China will definitely be more profitable.

And the ore from Africa, when it is shipped back, will not be settled by foreign exchange, otherwise, it will not be possible to find a buyer in the country.

There is not much steel exported in China at all, where does the steel mill get the foreign exchange for settlement?

"It really can't be supported by friendship orders. If we can't find an order, we don't even have the opportunity to continue producing 100,000 tons of ore ships. Li Qingmin also understood what Xie Kai said.

The problem is that at present, the country simply does not know where to find an ocean shipping company capable of purchasing such a large-tonnage merchant ship.

Most of the goods are transported by cargo ships of tens of thousands of tons.

"The challenge to a larger tonnage carrier is something that cannot be interrupted. Especially oil tankers, it is best to design and produce 20~300,000 tons of oil tankers and ore carriers. Of course, there is no rush for now. Xie Kai said.

In a few years, the domestic demand for iron ore and crude oil will increase sharply.

At the beginning, there was no design and production capacity for such large ships in China, which led to the fact that most of these domestic market needs were obtained by Japanese and Korean shipyards at the beginning.

The load is generally more than 200,000 tons of ultra-large ore carriers (VLOC), because the international demand for ore has almost always been stable, ultra-large ore ships have not been much developed, and the number is basically stable.

The construction technology of these ultra-large ore ships is in the hands of Japan and South Korea.

So far, the world's largest ore carrier is the 364767-ton "BERGE STAHL" ore carrier built by South Korea's Hyundai Shipbuilding for Norwegian shipowners in 1986.

"The international demand is not very large. Wang Xinghe didn't understand what Xie Kai meant.

"It's true that the international demand is not large, but we have a large domestic demand, and the primary smelters established there will not be able to consume the ore mined in Africa. Eventually, it will be shipped back. Xie Kai said.

There are still more than ten years between now and the large-scale import of ore by the state.

There are more than 10 years, which is completely enough for domestic challenges such a technology.

"The requirements for transport ships are much lower than those for warships, and if we can't even build transport ships, how can we build large-tonnage warships?" Xie Kai's purpose is here.

Although the construction technology of transport ships is very different from that of warships, the development of transport ships must have some important role in promoting the construction technology of warships.

"Even if we want to import large-tonnage warship construction technology from abroad, no one wants to sell it to us. Qi Zhiyuan agreed with Xie Kai's statement.

It's not that he really thinks it makes sense, anyway, Xie Kai wants a bigger ore ship, at least Horwath International has demand.

Since you don't rely on friendship orders, you have to come up with real materials.

Early the next morning, the boat king and his party left.

Xie Kai and the others did not leave because of something.

They also have to deal with some things related to warships.

In other docks of Hudong Shipyard, 6 053 main structures have been built and are also about to be launched and outfitted work.

Looking at these 053 frigates that have not yet been painted, have rusty stains, the shape has been built, and even the main structures such as the bridge have been completed, leaving only the 053 frigate with radar and antenna not installed, Xie Kai was disappointed.

The appearance of these warships cannot be compared with the 100,000-ton ore ship at all.

The length of the entire warship is more than 100 meters, but the width of the board is less than 11 meters, and if the height of the bridge and the main mast is not counted, the entire warship cannot be compared with a 100,000-ton giant freighter.

"The boat is really a bit small. Zheng Yucheng saw that the construction of two warships on a slipway started at the same time, and such a frigate was not as huge as a cargo ship, so he couldn't help but be a little disappointed, "I thought we would produce more before I lost it." ”

"Be content, many countries can't even produce such frigates, right?" Xie Kai glanced at Zheng Yucheng, the old guy's words were too disappointing, "What's more, this is just a frigate that undertakes regional air defense tasks." ”

"Regional air defense ......" Zheng Yucheng shook his head.

This thing, just install a few avant-garde, and install the flying shield-359 system, and you can form a regional air defense?

The Haihongqi-61 was installed, but it did not have regional air defense capabilities because the firing range was only 11 kilometers.

"Area air defense is to be done by a destroyer of the 052 class. Our original positioning was anti-ship, equipped with C-801 anti-ship missiles, at least the ability in this area is not bad. Wang Hengyuan argued.

Zheng Yucheng wanted to say something, but was stopped by Xie Kai.

At present, saying these will hit the confidence of the technical team, take your time, increase the tonnage of the frigate little by little, and one day, you will be able to have a large warship, right?

"In fact, as long as the tonnage of our 053 is increased to about 4,000 tons, it can also have a strong regional air defense capability!" Seeing that the two had no confidence in Hudong Shipyard, Wang Hengyuan couldn't help but be anxious.