经济学人下载:亚洲造船厂 越深越好

Business
商业报道

Asian shipyards
亚洲造船厂

The deeper the better
越深越好

Korean and Singaporean yards have adapted well to China's challenge
韩国、新加坡的造船业对来自中国的挑战应付自如

PLENTY of behemoths are being welded into shape in South Korea's shipyards at the moment.
目前，韩国造船厂里大量大型船只已成型。

Clustered around the southern city of Busan, the big three yards—Samsung Heavy Industries, Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering, and Hyundai Heavy Industries—are churning out the world's biggest container ships, 400 metres long; an oil barge whose length, at about 460 metres, or 1,462 feet, is almost half the height of Scafell Pike, England's tallest mountain;
聚集在南部釜山市的三大造船厂—三星重工集团、大宇造船和海洋工程有限公司以及现代重工集团—正大量建造世界最大的集装箱货船，其长达400米。油驳大约长460米或1462英尺，几乎是英国最高山斯科菲峰的一半高。

and some of the largest oil rigs yet built.
一些最大的石油钻塔还未建成。

But size isn't everything.
但是型号并非全部。

Just as impressive, and more important commercially, are four ultra deepwater drill-ships coming off the line at Samsung Heavy Industries.
同样惊人，并且在商业性方面更为重要的是由三星重工业生产的4大超级深海钻井船。

Commissioned by a Danish shipping giant, Maersk, the first one has just been christened: Viking, appropriately enough.
在丹麦轮船巨头Maersk的授权下，第一艘船命名为Viking再适合不过了。

Described by a Maersk engineer as giant Black & Deckers, these ships are designed for work in the deepest of waters, such as in the Gulf of Mexico.
正如Maersk的一位工程师所描述的巨大的黑色甲板，这些船是用来在海洋最深处工作，例如墨西哥湾。

As inland and coastal wells run dry after decades of exploitation, oil firms are being forced farther out to sea, and ships like Viking, which will be used by Exxon Mobil, are designed to meet their requirements.
随着几十年的不断开采，内陆以及沿海的油井已经快枯竭。石油公司不得不迈向海洋更深处。并且，像Viking这一批船，它们的制造就是为了满足埃克森美孚这样的顾客的需求。

Viking can operate in 3,000 metres of water, and then drill down through another 12,000 metres of earth—more than the height of Mount Everest.
Viking能在深入水下3000米工作，然后再向下挖12,000米—深度比珠穆朗玛峰还高。

The centrepiece of the vessel is the derrick, which is over 60 metres high.
船的中心是高达60余米的油井架吊杆，

But the most advanced bits of kit are probably the six thruster engines.
但是装置中最先进的部分要数6部推力器引擎。

The engineers claim that they can keep the ship steady and drilling even in waves of up to 9 metres.
工程师们说，这些引擎能够让Viking高达9米的巨浪中保持平稳并继续工作。

Strong technical skills have proved to be the salvation of Korean shipyards.
强有力的专门技能来自于韩国造船厂。

Only a decade or so ago most analysts were assuming that China's heavily subsidised yards would soon take much if not all of South Korea's share of the world shipbuilding market, just as South Korean yards had wiped out much of Europe's capacity a generation before.
大约10年前，大多分析家设想，中国受极大补贴的造船厂，如果不能占据韩国在世界船只建造市场的全部份额，那么至少也得大部分，就如上一年代韩国造船行业一扫欧洲大部分国家造船业一样。

But it has not worked out like that.
但是中国不及韩国当年。

It is true that China now gets more orders in terms of gross tonnage, but in the year to July 2013 South Korea produced 76.2% more than China by dollar value.
的确，现在中国就总吨数而言，是接到更多订单，但是按美元来算总价值，到今年7月，韩国的生产值比中国多76.2%。

The Koreans, and their Singaporean counterparts, are making money in a highly competitive market by focusing on complex vessels like Viking, often for the offshore market.
韩国，以及和它相当的新加坡，正通过制造出像Viking这样的复杂型船只在竞争激烈的市场里获利，并且他们的专注点在海外市场。

China has failed to break out of the basic bulk-carrier market, where ships may cost as little as 30m.
中国没能突破制造仅值3000万美元的基本散装货船。

As a result it is China's yards that are struggling, confined to a part of the market that is plagued by overcapacity, whereas Korean and Singaporean order books are almost full. Maersk reckons the market for offshore rigs and drill-ships is now worth 44 billion a year.
结果就是，中国造船业不停地挣扎，被限制在了一个有产能过剩麻烦的市场之中。而韩国跟新加坡的订单，几乎全满。

Sokje Lee, an analyst at J.P. Morgan in Seoul, explains that shipbuilding is nowadays a design and quality business rather than a labour-driven one,
首尔J.P摩根的一位分析家Sokie李解释道，如今的造船讲求的是设计和质量，而不仅仅是靠劳力。

and South Korean firms, once a lower-cost alternative to their European rivals, have spent heavily and wisely in becoming more technically sophisticated.
韩国企业，相对于他们的欧洲对手而言，也曾是一个低耗备胎，但他们花费了大量人力物力变成今天的技术精密型。

Each of the big Korean yards has thousands of in-house designers and engineers.
每一家大型韩国造船厂都有成千上万的内部设计师和工程师。

This has made them world leaders in the new generation of fuel-efficient, cheap-to-run eco ships.
正是这一点使得他们成为新一代造船业的世界级领军人物，他们的船，能源高效，操作实惠。

China's yards have focused instead on offering customers low prices and irresistible financing deals.
而中国的造船业关注点在给消费者提供低价船以及难以抵抗的金融交易。

Sometimes they demand as little as 10% of the cost on signing a contract, leaving the other 90% until delivery.
有时，他们在签订协议时仅仅只需10%的费用，剩下的90%仍处于交付状态。

Yet this ruthless competitiveness has not won them a decent share of the lucrative offshore market.
但是这种极其可怕的竞争力并没有为他们在有利可图的海外市场赢得可观的份额。

Here quality, efficiency and sticking to delivery dates are at a premium, and Chinese yards still score poorly on all counts.
在现在市场中，质量，效率以及严格遵守交货时间处于最优先位置，而中国企业在这些方面仍然做得不够。

A recent report from CLSA, a stockbroker, concludes that China is still far behind the Koreans in the market for offshore vessels.
证券投资机构CLSA最近的一份报告总结了，在海外造船市场，中国远远落后于韩国。

Even worse, China will soon lose much of its advantage on price.
更糟的是，中国很快会失去它的价格优势。

CLSA estimates that labour costs in its yards are rising by 10-15% a year, while productivity remains low.
CLSA估测，在该行业，中国的劳力费用每年上涨10%-15%，但是生产力仍持低。

Singapore's two main yards, Keppel and SembCorp Marine, have also invested heavily in quality and efficiency.
同样，新加坡主要的两家造船企业，吉宝和胜科海事也在质量跟效率方面投入大量资金。

They specialise more in deep-sea rigs than in drill-ships and carriers.
相比钻井船和货船，他们更专长于深海钻机。

Keppel, the bigger of the two, is building a record 20 such monsters this year; next year it will deliver the first of three giant, 600m jack-up rigs.
吉宝的规模比胜科更大。今年吉宝预备制造20艘这样的巨型船，明年将交付三个中的第一个，即值6亿美元的自升式钻井。

Time is money
时间就是金钱

The Singaporeans are also good at building things on time, which is vital in an industry where late delivery can cost the operators of rigs and drill-ships over 500,000 a day.
另外，新加坡造船企业还拥有按时完成制造的有点，这对于拖延交货一天就得多花50万在钻机和钻井船操作上的企业来说，尤为重要。

Over the past five years, rigs ordered from Keppel and SembCorp were, on average, delivered ahead of schedule, whereas Chinese yards delivered 50-250 days late, says IHS Petrodata, a research firm.
一家研究公司HIS揭示，在过去的5年中，吉宝和胜科的钻机一般都是在规定时间前交付的，而中国企业，比规定时间晚50-250天。

The only cloud on the horizon for the Koreans and Singaporeans might be fracking.
韩国和新加坡目前的唯一问题可能是液压破裂法。

The output of tight oil from onshore shale beds has soared in the past few years, especially in America, and could one day reduce the demand for expensive deep-sea rigs and vessels.
沿海页岩层密致油的产量在过去的几年中飞增，尤其是在美国，这种油很有肯在某天就降低了昂贵深海钻机和钻井船的需求量。

Indeed, Mr Lee even suggests that the offshore business might already have peaked.
诚然，李先生暗示，海外造船业可能达到了顶峰。

But Keppel, for one, is not too worried.
但是吉宝并不是很担心。

The demand for oil has so far kept rising; and as long as the crude price is above 80 a barrel, the big oil firms will have the money and the incentive to keep developing deepwater fields, and thus to keep ordering its rigs.
一来，油量的需求持续增长，只要每桶原油价格仍在80刀以上，大型的石油公司就有资金以及动力继续开发深海领域，因此，对钻机仍有需求。