The China Shipbuilding Industry Corp.(CSIC), one of the two largest shipbuilding groups in China, built 3.17 million tons of new ships in 2005, up 47 percent.

Li Changyin, CSIC general manager said this during its national meeting held here Thursday.

In 2005, the CSIC received 3.73 million tons of new orders and 2.85 million tons of new ships are under construction. The profit it earned topped one billion yuan, up 85 percent year-on-year.

China's shipbuilding companies built 12 million tons of new ships in 2005, accounting for 18 percent of the world market, ranking third after the Republic of Korea and Japan.

At present the corporation has 10.7 million tons of new ship orders at hand, with a contractual value of 81 billion yuan, up 40 percent year-on-year. Major companies have orders at hand until 2009.

Li said the corporation will receive three million tons of new orders and build 2.53 million tons of ships, aiming to collect 1.5 billion yuan in profit, up 30 percent year-on-year in 2006.

Source: Xinhua