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According to the China Shipbuilding Economy Research Center, Chinese shipbuilding orders would fall by 60% about 150 million DWT and new build prices would lower by 30% in 2009. Facing with sliding steel prices, shipbuilders are not willing to cut their price immediately while buyers are taking ‘wait and see’ approach. Orders will fall further in 2010, lower than 50 million DWT and a moderate recovery will arise in 2011. Government policy now is focusing on improving quality and protecting current shipyards which are with good records and performance.

9/11 steel poured for USS SomersetBy KIRK SWAUGER Published: August 06, 2008 11:35 pm SOMERSET — The old draglines that towered above the reclaimed strip mine where Flight 93 crashed near Shanks-ville almost seven years ago are gone. But their symbolic significance to the day average Americans fought back against terror will not be lost. Twenty-two tons of steel from one of the large cranes was melted and poured Wednesday for the stemhold of the USS Somerset, a Navy vessel being constructed in honor of Flight 93’s passengers and crew. “We’re going to be cutting the water for that ship...

Life can have its little irritations when you're cruising around the world on your £100million superyacht. For example, the endless vista of clear blue sea fails to provide much greenery to ease the eye - apart from the odd tropical island. For the owner of a forthcoming craft named WallyIsland, however, this will not be a problem. For he, or she, will have a personal ocean-going garden. The 325ft-long yacht is to feature a growing area with shrubbery and flower beds, kept healthy by an irrigation system. It will also have a tennis court, pool and five accommodation decks including...

Northrop Grumman To Tap Further Potential In India Jan 8, 2008 Neelam Mathews/Aerospace Daily & Defense Report NEW DELHI - Northrop Grumman's Ship Systems division is planning to pursue opportunities in India and arrangements should be announced this year, Aerospace Daily has learned. The Ship Systems division will follow the lead of Northrop's Integrated Defense Systems and Electronics divisions in tapping opportunities in India. The Indian navy plans to induct 120 warships and 12 submarines over the next decade to protect its maritime interests and expand its influence in the Indian Ocean region. The trend has been set as the...

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The chief of the US naval operations expressed concern Thursday about competition from China's flourishing ship building sector, while a lawmaker said it could soon be building more warships that the United States. "The fact that our shipbuilding capacity and industry is not as competitive as other builders around the world is cause for concern," Admiral Gary Roughead told the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee. Singling out China, he said: "They are very competitive on the world market. There is no question that their ship building capability is increasing rapidly." Republican lawmaker Duncan Hunter told the...

Navy calls for warships like US 25 Nov 2007, 0938 hrs IST,PTI NEW DELHI: Navy has suggested to the government that India acquire the knowhow to build super tankers and seek transfer of this technology to build the same tonnage warships on the pattern of US carriers. "We have submitted a comprehensive Plan to the government seeking rapid expansion of shipbuilding capacity. We have to graduate to the level of building super tankers and transfer the same technology to warship building," Naval Chief Sureesh Mehta said on Sunday. To bring about this rapid expansion, Mehta said the Naval blueprint has...

SAN DIEGO (AP) — An explosion in the hull of a Navy cruiser during routine maintenance injured six workers on Saturday, two of them critically, authorities said. Subcontractors from the National Steel and Shipbuilding Co. were working in the fuel tank of the USS Lake Champlain as it sat in dry dock when the explosion occurred just after noon, said San Diego Fire Department spokesman Maurice Luque. "Apparently it was caused by flammable gas that ignited," Luque said. "We don't know how or why." Two of the workers were taken to UC San Diego Medical Center with "major trauma burns"...

Navy Inspectors Find Numerous Problems With Ship Project By SEAN REILLY   A Navy littoral combat ship under construction at Austal USA's Mobile, Ala., shipyard. (Photo by Victor Calhoun)     Navy inspectors have documented numerous problems with construction of a next-generation vessel known as the littoral combat ship, or LCS, according to government records obtained under the federal Freedom of Information Act.Among the concerns singled out in more than 180 "corrective action reports'' filed between late 2005 and this May: botched welding, employees doing work for which they were not qualified and potentially dangerous misapplication of sound-dampening material.Both the...

REFLECTIONS BY THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF The press dispatches bring the news; it belongs to the Astute Class, the first of its kind to be constructed in Great Britain in more than two decades. "A nuclear reactor will allow it to navigate without refuelling during its 25 year of service. Since it makes its own oxigen and drinking water, it can circumnavigate the globe without needing to surface," was the statement to the BBC by Nigel Ward, head of the shipyards. "It’s a mean looking beast", says another. "Looming above us is a construction shed 12 storeys high. Within it...

Bedeviled with cost overruns, the Navy's shipbuilding program is in danger of sinking under its own weight. Navy leaders have struggled to upgrade an aging fleet of warships with next-generation aircraft carriers, destroyers, amphibious assault ships and submarines that cost billions more than the vessels they replace. Seven new ships are budgeted for this year, barely a third of the number built annually during the peak Reagan-era defense buildup. Fifteen will be decommissioned, including the San Diego-based Ogden, Trenton and Dolphin. The result is a fleet of 276, the lowest total in nine decades. “The number of ships we're producing...

Will America name its next aircraft carrier — a supercarrier that is planned to be the greatest naval ship ever built — after former President Ford? Before we delve into the answer, flash back more than three decades ago. On May 3, 1975, Ford, then the 38th president of the United States, stood dwarfed by the immense bulk of the then brand-new carrier USS Nimitz at its commissioning ceremony in Norfolk, Va. "As each of us looks upon this great ship," he said reverently, "a single thought must seize our minds: Only the United States of America can make a...

April 10, 2006: The U.S. Navy wants to save money by building its amphibious ships to merchant ship standards. This is something Europeans are already doing with some of their smaller warships. The thinking is that these ships, when hit by an anti-ship missile, are not going to be any better protected by the more expensive (double welds on seams, etc) techniques usually used for warships. The navy already has pre-positioning ships, built to merchant ship standards, that would enter war zones along with amphibious ships. This "convergence" building strategy would allow for greater economy in procuring materials and parts,...

Any word on damage at the Ingalls Shipbuilding yard in Pascagoula, MS? They build Wasp-class amphibious assault ships, as well as others.

Manufacturing News July 8, 2005 Vol. 12, No. 13 812 Words Page 1 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- U.S. Navy Is Removing Life Support For Shipbuilding Industry The United States shipbuilding industry is on the verge of losing most of its component suppliers due to severe cuts in naval shipbuilding budgets and Department of Defense procurement rules that encourage acquisition managers to buy products from the lowest-cost commercial suppliers overseas, claims the American Shipbuilding Association. Next year's proposed budget for naval ships is $3.2 billion less than the amount appropriated in 2005, says Cynthia Brown, president of the American Shipbuilding Association. Since 2001, defense...

US Navy shipbuilding plan takes on water ·US Navy shipbuilding plans are in turmoil due to budgetary pressures ·The navy is trying to shave costs off planned ships and is considering buying fewer vessels over the short term ·The navy has already scrapped a more ambitious and expensive seabasing plan for one that makes greater use of existing ships and designs Faced with steep and rising shipbuilding costs and a severe budget crunch, the US Navy is looking to salvage its major shipbuilding programmes by scaling back plans for the vessels. The moves take two forms: one entails scrutinising each...

THEY may have never built a surface warship, but this has not stopped ASC from easily winning the right to build Australia's new high-technology air warfare destroyers. The decision to build the state-of-the-art destroyers in South Australia represents a huge vote of confidence by John Howard and his ministers in the government-owned submarine builder. Nearly 20 years after exiting the naval shipbuilding business altogether, the federal Government is now back in the business of owning a major warship project. Cabinet's national security committee is banking on ASC's success in constructing six Collins class submarines -- the most complex defence shipbuilding...

NASSCO launches a new breed of Navy ship By Michael Stetz UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER May 22, 2005 JOHN GASTALDO / Union-TribuneThe Lewis and Clark slid into the water last night at a ceremony attended by thousands. The Navy combat cargo ship is longer than two football fields. It is the first of its type to be built. With much pomp and circumstance and lots of grease to help the big thing slide down the sled and not, heaven forbid, get stuck; the Navy ship Lewis and Clark was launched last night. It had been four years since National Steel and...

WA in combat ship rivalry The race is on to build a high speed ship capable of performing a range of operations for the US Navy, reports John Kerin A PERTH-based company is at the forefront of a race to build a $13 billion fleet of up to 60 high speed manoeuvrable shallow water combat ships for the US Navy. The entirely new class, known as the littoral combat ship (LCS), has to be fast and capable of carrying out a range of operations in shallow coastal waters tackling mines, surface attack craft and diesel submarines which can disrupt military...

WASHINGTON — The powerful DDX Destroyer is nicknamed the "stealth" warship for its design that has several flat surfaces above the water to make it more difficult for the enemy to detect. The Navy wants to buy one DDX per year, paying about $3 billion per ship, but the place where the ships will be built is a point of disagreement between the Pentagon and Capitol Hill. The Pentagon wants the two shipyards that build the Navy's destroyers to compete, meaning only one would get the whole DDX contract. The two sites are Ingalls Shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss., run by...

Lawmakers seek answers on fate of U.S. shipbuilding By Amy Klamper, CongressDaily Members of the Senate Armed Services Committee questioned the Navy's top civilian official on future shipbuilding plans during a hearing Thursday. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va., told Navy Secretary Gordon England the service should consider waiting until the department completes its quadrennial defense strategy review later this year before deciding to reduce its aircraft carrier fleet from 12 to 11 ships as proposed in the Pentagon's FY06 defense budget. England said the Navy's ability to put combat power forward using "better airplanes, better precision weapons...