China’s shipyards are attempting to boost production capacity and move up the value chain by making more advanced vessels to fulfill the country’s ambition to become a major shipbuilding power.

Zhang Guangqin, vice minister of the Commission of Science, Technology, and Industry for National Defence - a body set up in the late 1990s to oversee China’s ship manufacturers - said on Thursday the country’s shipyards would increase output by 14 per cent this year.