In the construction process of ordinary cargo ships, stainless steel materials are mainly salt resistant and acid resistant piping, including pumps and valves. In addition, some stainless steel sheets are also used for the decoration and outfitting of some ships. However, due to engineering technology and comprehensive cost considerations, the amount of stainless steel used in the ship industry is small. With the rapid development of China's shipbuilding industry, especially the substantial growth of chemical ship orders and LNG ships, the demand for stainless steel materials has increased significantly, which has also driven the rapid development of the industrialization of China's marine stainless steel products. Especially in recent years, China's marine stainless steel products have been greatly improved both in variety and quality.

Application cases of stainless steel products in shipbuilding industry

1. Chemical tanker

Chemical transport ship is one of the high technology and high added value ship types recognized by the shipbuilding and shipping industry in the world. The ability to build chemical ships, especially those with stainless steel cargo tanks, not only marks the technical level of the enterprise, but also shows the management ability of the enterprise.

With the development of chemical industry, especially the rapid development of petrochemical industry, the transportation volume of raw materials and products it needs will increase day by day, which provides a broad space for the construction of chemical ships.

At present, the main applications of stainless steel products on chemical ships are all stainless steel cargo tank plates, as well as some stainless steel and nickel based corrosion-resistant alloy pipes and fittings.

In 2021, Chinese shipping enterprises will undertake 48 orders for chemical ships, 1.284 million deadweight tons, accounting for 72.7% of the global total. From January to October 2022, Chinese shipyards will undertake 34 orders for chemical ships, 337000 deadweight tons, accounting for 59.6% of the global total, and continue to rank first in the world.

At present, the enterprises that can build chemical ships in China mainly include Guangzhou Shipbuilding International Co., Ltd., Jiangsu New Era Shipbuilding, China Merchants Group Jinling Dingheng Shipbuilding (Yangzhou) Co., Ltd., etc.

2. LNG Ship

Influenced by international geopolitical conflicts and other factors, the shipping market of large LNG ships has continued to be hot this year, with the freight rate of 174000m3 LNG ships rising from 57000 dollars/day at the beginning of the year to 468000 dollars/day in October. The explosion of LNG transportation market has driven the growth of new orders. From January to October, the global orders for LNG ships exceeded 140, ranking the first in history. The increase of orders for large LNG ships will certainly drive the demand for stainless steel and related materials.

There are mainly three technical routes of enclosure systems for large LNG ships (147000m3 and above): the NO96 membrane enclosure system of GTT in France, the MARK III membrane enclosure system and the MOSS enclosure system of Japan. Since 2016, the NO96 membrane enclosure system or MARK III enclosure system has been used in all orders for large LNG ships worldwide, and the MOSS enclosure system has withdrawn from the new shipbuilding market for large LNG ships.

Among the large LNG ships in operation, 35% of them adopt NO96 enclosure system, 37% of them adopt MARK III enclosure system, and 28% of them adopt MOSS enclosure system in Japan.

From the perspective of the technical route of building a national shipyard, Daewoo Shipbuilding uses NO96 technology, while Hyundai Heavy Industry and Samsung Heavy Industry use MARK III technology. China Hudong Zhonghua Shipbuilding Group uses NO96 technology, and Large Shipbuilding Industry, Jiangnan Shipbuilding, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding and China Merchants Group use MARK III technology.

With green and low carbon becoming one of the important trends of global economic development, natural gas has become the main direction of global energy structure transformation due to its safety, efficiency, economy and environmental protection. Both international and domestic supply and demand are booming. In 2021, China's offshore LNG import volume will reach 78.93 million tons, becoming the world's largest offshore LNG importer. Meanwhile, domestic oil and gas companies will pay more attention to strengthening the construction of independent transportation capacity, and the orders for large LNG ships will grow steadily.

In 2023, after the mandatory entry into force of new rules and regulations such as the existing ship energy efficiency index (EEXI) and carbon intensity index (CII), on the one hand, the ship will slow down to sail, resulting in reduced transport capacity; on the other hand, it will speed up the dismantling or refitting of old ships, and promote the renewal of the fleet. The implementation of new rules and regulations is conducive to increasing the demand for new LNG ships.

After the Russian Ukrainian conflict, Europe gradually got rid of its strong dependence on Russian pipeline gas as Europe announced the implementation of sanctions on Russian energy. In the future, Europe is bound to seek to increase LNG imports to the United States, the Middle East and other countries, while Russia will also strengthen LNG marine exports to Asian countries such as China and India. The increase in transportation distance has led to the increase in demand for LNG ton sea transportation capacity, which is good for the world LNG ship shipbuilding market.

From January to October 2022, more than 140 large LNG ships have been sold in the world. The previous peak years were 2004 and 2018, when the number of orders for large and medium-sized LNG ships reached 68 and 66 respectively. It is expected that the strong demand for large LNG ships will last for a long time.

To sum up, it is expected that China's LNG ship shipbuilding market will continue to improve in the medium to long term, providing industrial basis and market opportunities for the development of domestic offshore LNG equipment industry chain.

For the 174000m3 large LNG ship with MARK III membrane enclosure system, each ship needs to use 400 tons of stainless steel corrugated plate (finished plate). If considering the cutting and processing consumption, it is about 500 tons.

In the next 5-10 years, there will be 4 shipyards (Large Shipbuilding Industry, Jiangnan Shipbuilding, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding and China Merchants Group) built with MARK III membrane enclosure system in China. The production capacity of about 20 large membrane LNG carriers and potential F-LNG projects in China each year. It is estimated that the annual demand for stainless steel corrugated plates will be about 10,000 tons.

3. Cruise ships and ro ro ships

LNG ships, aircraft carriers and luxury cruise ships are known as the jewels in the crown of shipbuilding industry. In 2019, China's first polar exploration cruise ship built by China Merchants Industry (Jiangsu) Co., Ltd. was delivered to the ship owner, and three more were delivered in 2021, marking a solid step in the field of luxury cruise ship construction in China. During the construction of polar adventure cruise ships, about 10 tons of stainless steel were used for hull construction.

On August 8, 2022, the construction of the second domestic large-scale cruise ship was officially started in Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. of China Shipbuilding Group in Pudong, marking that China's shipbuilding industry has preliminarily mastered the key core technologies for the design and construction of large-scale cruise ships. Since then, China has entered the era of "double ship" construction, and the realization of batch and serial construction of domestic large-scale cruise ships is just around the corner. During the construction of domestic luxury cruise ships, about 140 tons of stainless steel were used for the construction of various parts.

Since this year, with the massive export of new energy vehicles in China, the demand of automobile manufacturers for automobile carriers has increased significantly, which has led to a significant increase in the freight of automobile carriers and spawned new ship orders. From January to October 2022, the world received 51 new orders for motor transport ships, of which China received 84.3%. In Ro Ro ship (Ro Ro passenger ship+motor transport ship), stainless steel is mainly used in the following areas: first, the fire protection system, which generally uses stainless steel pipes due to weight reduction; Second, the interior armrest is made of stainless steel for aesthetic reasons. The whole ship will use about 16-20 tons of stainless steel.

To sum up, by the end of October 2022, there are about 97 chemical ships with stainless steel in hand in China, with 1.958 million deadweight tons, and it is estimated that the consumption of duplex stainless steel will be about 130000 tons; At present, China's shipping enterprises hold 135 ro ro ships of various types, with 181.5 deadweight tons, and it is estimated that about 3000 tons of stainless steel will be consumed. China's shipping enterprises hold 12 MARK III LNG ships, which are expected to consume 10000 tons of stainless steel.