A state-of-the-art trench laying ship is launched at Jiantiao port in Sanmen county, Taizhou on Nov 1. [Photo/WeChat account: tzfb001]

The shipbuilding industry in Taizhou has seen significant growth as of late, propelled by the recovery of the global seaborne shipping market.

With a total of 45 shipbuilding firms in Taizhou, the order backlog is enough to meet production demands until 2024, with some shipyards even planning for 2025. Liang Xinfang, president of the Taizhou Shipbuilding Industry Association, is highly confident in the industry's future, asserting that it has embarked on a prosperous journey after years of dormancy.

In the first half of 2023, the Taizhou shipbuilding industry achieved a total output value of 3.5 billion yuan ($487.54 million), marking an 11 percent increase compared to the previous year. Ship completions reached 710,000 deadweight tons, a 14 percent increase, accounting for 40 percent of Zhejiang's completions.

Taizhou has also secured new contracts for 830,000 deadweight tons, a 3 percent increase and accounting for 22 percent of the province's overall total. Currently, shipbuilding companies in Taizhou have a backlog of 2.85 million deadweight tons of orders, a 6 percent surge from the previous year, accounting for 28 percent of the province's total.