China's 2009 ship exports up almost 45pct

Despite the financial crisis, China's ship exports totaled 28.36 billion US dollars last year, up 44.92 percent year on year, thanks to the government's stimulus plan for the shipbuilding industry. Bulk cargo vessels took the place of container ships as the largest export type. Export value of bulk cargo vessels came to 8.96 billion US dollars, accounting for 31.6 percent of the total.
Oil tankers to the value of 7.3 billion US dollars were exported making up 25.7 percent of the total.
Exports of container ships were 3.38 billion US dollars, representing 11.9 percent of the total export.
China exported ships to 159 counties and regions in 2009.
Singapore, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China, and Germany, were the top three export destinations, to which China exported 5.04 billion US dollars, 4.64 billion US dollars and 2.29 billion dollars of ships respectively.
China imported 30.84 billion US dollars of ships in 2009, up 47.91 percent, mainly from Japan, Singapore and South Korea.