A group of state-owned Chinese shipping companies have placed a 4.5 billion USD order for 50 supertankers, throwing a financial lifeline to China's struggling shipbuilders, a newspaper reported yesterday.
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The order adds to a multibillion-dollar flurry of investments by state companies in recent weeks - a key element in Beijing's carefully controlled effort to reverse a painful economic slump.
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The government has approved a wave of spending on new steel mills, subway lines and other corporate and public works projects.
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The move also could help China, the world's biggest energy consumer, gain more control over its energy supply chain by owning the giant ships needed to import crude from the Middle East and elsewhere.
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The supertankers were ordered by three of China's biggest shippers, China Shipping Group, Dalian Ocean Shipping Co and China Merchants Group, the 21st Century Business Herald said. It cited the president of China Shipping and the general manager of Dalian Ocean Shipping.
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Employees who answered the phone at the press offices of the three companies said they could not confirm the report or give other details such as where the tankers would be produced.
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Chinese shipyards, which are the world's biggest shipbuilders by total tonnage, have been among the hardest-hit industries in the slowdown. Orders have fallen by more than half and shipyards are cutting jobs.
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"Small and medium-size shipbuilding companies are either out of business or near bankruptcy," said Xia Xiaowen, an analyst for the China Shipbuilding Economy Research Center, a think tank in Beijing.
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If the reports of new orders are accurate, "it will definitely be good news for those large manufacturers, and they don't need to worry about survival anymore," Xia said.
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China's economic growth fell to a three-year low of 7.6 percent in the three months ending in June.Â
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