Is China's marine market potential starting to be realised?
By IBI Magazine
The 13th China International Boat Show has reported a successful run, with positive exhibitor feedback despite a drop in the visitor attendance figure compared to last year.
The visitor count at this year's CIBS — held in Shanghai from April 10-13 — was 14,050, significantly lower than 2007's reported 23,000.
Organiser CMP Sinoexpo says the decrease is due to a new counting system, which uses actual visitor numbers rather than the number of times the show was visited, and to a rise in this year's onsite ticket price.
Exhibitor numbers were up on last year, with 365 exhibitors at this year's show compared to last year's 352. There was a consensus among those exhibitors canvassed by IBI, that mainland China's true boat market potential was now starting to be realised after five years of 'wait and see'.
A number of major European boatbuilders used the show to rubber-stamp their intentions for the Chinese market.
Ferretti Group CEO Vincenzo Cannatelli told journalists during a press conference: "We're moving East — the Middle East first, but the next wave of growth is the far east and specifically China. The wealth creation that China is building up, is perfectly fit for the type of industry we are in and the lifestyle we are trying to bring around the world. We're at the beginning of a journey but we're highly committed to being in China for the next 10-20 years and highly committed to building an industry here."
The Group announced the delivery of its first Pershing 72 to its recently appointed Chinese dealer Keyforce Holdings (click here for original story).
Fellow Italian builder Azimut reinforced its intentions for the region, using the event to officially announced the establishment of a Chinese subsidiary, Azimut China, its second factory office outside Italy (click here for story).
Atlantis, sister boatbuilder to Azimut, was exhibiting, via its new dealer Jebsen Marine, at the show for the first time. It had the biggest boat on display, an Atlantis 50, which was sold to a mainland Chinese buyer who will keep the yacht in Hong Kong.
"Five years ago everyone thought it would take 5-10 years for the market to really develop. But it is accelerating," Jebsen's Olivier Decamps, told IBI. "The Chinese want a new lifestyle — golf, polo, cars, and yachts."
French boatbuilder Groupe Bénéteau said that it was seeing an increase in sales of boats over 45ft to Chinese buyers. "We're selling boats every year and it's increasing quickly. It's now a case of us finding the right dealers to bring boats in to China," Lagoon's Yann Masselot told IBI. Bénéteau recently signed a five-year contract to supply the China Cup International Regatta, which will see the boatbuilder bringing crews from around the world to the event, training Chinese sailors throughout the five-year period. The Regatta organizers recently purchased another 20 First 40.7s to go with the 10 purchased for first cup in October 2007.
"Asia is where we see our main growth coming from in the next five years," said Masselot.
Yacht dealer Bahrfuss Yachting marketing director Xiao Guo told IBI: "We're selling around six boats a year to mainland China, but the boats are getting bigger. In 2005 we bought a Pershing 50 to Shanghai, which was a very expensive boat back then. Now we have a 54 footer on the way and we will sell that easily." He added: "A couple of years ago people wanted 20-30ft boats. Now they are thinking in terms of two berths and a flybridge, which is why we are bringing over two Princess motoryachts. This market has the potential to be bigger than Russia," Xiao Guo said.
CIBS 2009 will take place from April 16-19 at the Shanghai Exhibition Centre.
(A full report on the show and the rest of the Chinese market will feature in the June/July issue of IBI magazine)
(25 April 2008)
|
