China had two the largest shipbuilding companies which were Chine State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) and China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC). These two companies were the state-owned enterprises and found in the same year, 1999. They had so many common characteristics and finally they merged in 2019. This is quite important news actually in maritime industry since in this way, a powerful opponent against Hyundai Heavy Industries has come into the picture. Before giving details about these two corporations, firstly let’s take a look at their common history.

Brief History of CSSC and CSIC

• Shipbuilding industry has started to develop in China in 1950 and the Shipbuilding Industry Bureau of the Ministry of Heavy Industry was established.
• In 1982, the China National Shipbuilding Corporation was founded.
• In July 1999, State Council gave approval for the establishment of Chine State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) and China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC).
• Finally, these two corporations decided to merge and have started to a new journey together.

Both CSSC and CSIC’s main businesses are shipbuilding and they have wide range of products. For instance, CSSC can build various types of warships, vessels, modern ships, oil tankers, bulk carriers, Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) carriers and passenger freight ships; also, it exported a great number of ships to more than 50 countries. Beside this, CSIC designs, manufactures and repairs military and civil ships, marine equipment, naval supplementary boats and under water weapons. No doubt that these are just examples for their product range; further, they have also research institutes and subsidiary companies. Just like CSSC, CSIC exports also its products to many countries.

Furthermore, before merger while CSSC was continuing its activities in the north and west parts of China, CSIC was in the east and south parts. On the other hand, with the realization of merger, the new corporation has found the possibility to hold activities in every part of China. In this way, this new corporation -its name does not change and was accepted as China State Shipbuilding Corporation- has become more powerful. That is why, it is possible to say that this new CSSC can be rival company to Hyundai Heavy Industries. As you can remember, I mentioned about the power of Hyundai in shipbuilding in my previous article (The World’s Largest Shipyard: Hyundai Heavy Industries Ulsan Shipyard). It is undeniable that Hyundai has enormous power in this industry around the world; yet, China took a succeeding step to improve its abilities in this field by establishing cooperation between its largest shipbuilding corporations.  Their merger might be interpreted as “strategic decision” to be a “global giant” in the sector.

Even though time will show what is going to happen in the future from this point of view, it is certain that this development will be beneficial for Chinese economy.