Sinopacific Shipbuilding, one of China’s biggest private shipbuilders, has convened an emergency meeting next week in Hamburg with its western customers to assure them that it can deliver ordered vessels.

The Shanghai-based company, which employs over 10,000 people in its yards, called the meeting in response to industry speculation, possibly fuelled by some of its suppliers, that it might not survive the ongoing liquidity squeeze and slowdown in the shipping sector.