This paper uses firm-level data analysis to assess the extent, and the economic and policy implications of state-owned enterprises (hereafter SOEs) in the shipbuilding sector. Even though the available data appears to be limited in certain respects, one of the paper’s key findings demonstrates that SOEs occupy a significant share in global ship completions, but are likely to operate with lower profitability rates and to be more highly leveraged than private enterprises. This report also presents a number of guiding principles to assess SOEs’ behaviour and their potential impact on the shipbuilding market, such as good corporate governance frameworks and the principle of competitive neutrality. To provide a concrete comparative analysis of SOEs and their private counterparts, the paper examines a case-study comparing the Chinese central state-owned enterprise CSIC and its private counterpart Yangzijiang Shipbuilding.
