State support is making a huge difference  in the shipbuilding market, with Chinese yards now having widened their lead over their South Korea rivals, according to wire reports.
In the first seven months of this year, China won 27.8m dwt worth of orders, making up almost half of all global orders, and extending its lead over South Korea to 7.8m tons from 1m tons a year earlier, Bloomberg reported.
Government-backed yards won almost three-quarters of all those deals, up from 52% the year before, it added.