Chinese officials have set a formal timeline to shift the majority of cruise ship subcontracting and key component needs to domestic suppliers, with a target of sourcing more than 80 percent of supporting equipment and systems from Chinese companies by 2035.
The goal, outlined by Chen Gang, Chairman of Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. (SWS) under China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) and Chief Designer of China’s domestic large cruise ship program, represents a deliberate effort to replace the foreign suppliers that currently provide the bulk of equipment for newbuilds, from propulsion and navigation equipment to interior outfitting, hotel systems, and marine engineering components, with Chinese-made equivalents.
Building a large cruise ship requires thousands of suppliers and subcontractors across a complex, highly specialized supply chain. For China’s first domestically built vessels, that supply chain has remained overwhelmingly foreign and now officials hope to move that more locally.
Chen outlined a phased approach linked to each successive newbuild. The localization rate for the third domestically built cruise ship is expected to exceed 50 percent by 2030, with the 80 percent threshold targeted by 2035 as additional ships follow.
Progress is already being tracked against earlier vessels. Compared to China’s first large cruise ship, the Adora Magic City, the recently launched second ship, the Adora Flora City, has already increased its share of Chinese-supplied components by approximately 5 percent, according to local industry reports.
The localization drive is part of a broader industrial strategy to develop a complete domestic cruise industry supply chain, one that would give China’s shipyards the same depth of supplier relationships that their European peers enjoy.
On March 20, CSSC and China Tourism Group signed an agreement to build two additional cruise ships, with an option for a third, providing the pipeline of newbuilds that the localization program requires to develop and qualify domestic suppliers at scale.
