Chapter 213 Cost
Everyone carefully checked every detail of the module and found no obvious problems.
Then they started talking about the cost of shipbuilding.
Ino, a hull engineer at the shipyard, joked with a smile: "If this technology is successful, we won't have to recruit so many technicians when we expand our production capacity in the future."
"That's inevitable, otherwise the company wouldn't attach so much importance to this technology." Huang Weida replied with a smile.
The integrated hull manufacturing technology in front of us is actually a variant of biosynthetic material technology.
Through prefabricated modular templates, the hull outline of the ship can be quickly assembled. Special plastic waterproof cloth is laid inside the shell of the template. Finally, nutrient solution, metal ion solution, hormones and pheromones are continuously injected to allow the material to grow along the shell.
They have previously tested a transport ship with a displacement of 20,000 tons, and the current experimental transport ship is an 80,000-ton 6500TEU standard container ship.
Ino asked, "What is the current international quotation?"
An engineer who works on cost estimation replied: “Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ price is US$15,000 per TEU, Samsung Heavy Industries, Hyundai Heavy Industries and Daewoo Shipbuilding are US$14,600 per TEU, and China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation is US$14,200 per TEU.”
[Note: TEU stands for standard container].
Ino raised his eyebrows: "In other words, their cost is about 13,000 to 14,000 US dollars per TEU?"
"Yes, if it was a previous low-price order, based on the current cost, they are actually doing a loss-making business."
Huang Weida was somewhat curious about the company's production costs: "What are our costs?"
"If it is the old technology, we actually only have cost advantages in dual-purpose transport ships. The shipbuilding cost of other ships is about 7-8% lower than that of other shipbuilders." The cost engineer explained.
Huang Weida continued to ask: "How much can the new process reduce costs?"
The cost engineer thought for a while before answering the question: "We are still evaluating, but we can roughly estimate that it can be reduced by about 50%!"
"So many?" Huang Weida was surprised.
According to statistics from international shipping organizations: the manufacturing cost of a civilian ship includes 30% labor, 25% steel, 12% power system, 12% cabin equipment and deck equipment, 6% communication and navigation system, 5% electrical equipment, 5% other ship accessories, and 5% design and management.
From this we can see that labor + steel + power system + cabin equipment and deck equipment account for 79% of the total shipbuilding cost.
You should know that the manufacture of large ships often requires a large amount of steel and a large amount of manpower.
The profit margin of shipbuilding is usually 5-10% of the construction cost added to the contract quotation, so the contract quotation will be 105%-110% of the total cost.
The salary is not bad, after all, the employees' wages will not fluctuate too much.
But the price of steel is a serious .
Suppose Shipyard A received an order in January this year. When calculating the cost at that time, the cost of steel was US$600 per ton. By July this year, the price of steel had risen to US$900 per ton.
This means that the total cost will increase by about 12.5% to 112.5%, and the order will lose at least 2.5% to 7.5%.
Although sometimes the contract is signed when steel prices are high, if the steel prices fall during the shipbuilding period, higher profits can be obtained.
The problem is that shipping companies are not fools and they will also evaluate the market price of steel.
Unless it is a very popular LNG ship, for ordinary container ships, dry bulk carriers, ro-ro ships, tankers, etc., shipping companies often place orders during the period when steel prices are low.
Now, the world's three major shipbuilding countries are in a state of vicious competition, and they often undercut each other's prices in order to win orders.
For orders of ships of the same level and type, the quotations of Chinese shipbuilders are often lower than those of South Korean and Japanese shipbuilders.
Take an LNG ship with a capacity of 174,000 cubic meters (deadweight tonnage of about 100,000 tons) as an example.
Samsung Heavy Industries's bid is about US$250 million, with a profit of about US$12.5 million; while Chinese shipbuilders usually quote US$240 million, and even if labor costs and steel are slightly cheaper, the profit is only around US$10 million.
This vicious competition means that if there is even a slight fluctuation in steel costs, shipbuilders will face losses.
Millions of tons of ships are built every year, but the total profit of the industry is only a few billion US dollars. This is the current dilemma of the shipbuilding industry.
In fact, the three major shipbuilding countries in East Asia know that this is not going to work, but they simply cannot stop and can only keep going until the other two countries are completely finished, and then monopolize the entire shipbuilding industry, to end this vicious competition.
As the fourth largest shipbuilding country in the world, what should Luzon do in the face of this situation?
In fact, it is impossible to change the current situation and we can only participate in the internal competition.
Fortunately, the New Luzon Shipyard has the full support of the Sapiens Company and is equipped with various new technologies.
The cost engineer gave everyone a rough explanation:
"After adopting the integrated hull manufacturing method, we can reduce the waste of raw materials by 10-25%. In addition, our hull material is silicon aluminum steel, and the material cost is about 40% of the original cost; the labor cost is about 33% of the original cost; the power system has now been fully localized, which is about 75% of the original cost."
Huang Weida, Ino and others were all good at math. After some calculations in their minds, they figured out the approximate situation.
The current costs of major shipbuilders in East Asia are used as the reference base value.
The labor cost of the New Luzon Shipyard is 10%, material cost is 10%, power system cost is 9%, and other costs are 21%.
Its total cost is equivalent to about 50% of that of major East Asian shipbuilders.
This is because we need to leave enough profit for other sister companies, otherwise the cost can be reduced by about 10%.
In other words, it costs Samsung Heavy Industries about US$84.5 million to build a 6,500TEU container ship.
However, the cost for the New Luzon Shipyard to build the same 6,500TEU container ship is only about US$42.25 million.
Obviously, this gap is already terrifying.
The cost engineer smiled and said, "In fact, everyone has overlooked another advantage of our company."
"Another advantage?" Huang Weida didn't react for a moment.
"It's the speed of shipbuilding." The cost engineer reminded.
All the people present reacted immediately.
The shipbuilding speed of the New Luzon Shipyard is indeed very fast, it can even be described as lightning fast.
Taking this 6500TEU container ship as an example, if the new technology is used, the hull can be completed in about two months.
Then the secondary adjustment of the internal cabins, installation of the gas turbine, manufacturing of the ship island, installation of supporting equipment and finally outfitting will begin.
It is estimated that the construction of the ship can be completed in 130 to 140 days.
This speed is far beyond what other shipbuilders can afford, as they take one or two years to build large ships.
The unit cost is only about 50%, and the unit construction time is less than half.
The advantages accumulated by the New Luzon Shipyard in various aspects become more obvious when added together.
"Technology is indeed the primary productive force." Huang Weida sighed.
Ino turned around and asked, "Designer Huang, I heard that the Ship Design Center is also planning to add some energy-saving designs?"
Huang Weida nodded: "Yes, it is being studied, but it will not be tested . It will most likely be tested on the next ship."
"What's the design?" another engineer asked curiously.
Huang Weida did not hide anything and directly introduced several energy-saving solutions to everyone.
