Seven major Chinese rigbuilders have join forces to form the new China Offshore (Deepsea) Industry Alliance, or CODIA, as they seek to raise competitiveness through shared resources and keener focus on R&D.

CODIA was unveiled at an opening ceremony held on Wednesday in Beijing, China.

The seven Chinese rigbuilders are the first batch of ‘white list’ offshore shipyards, announced by the ministry of industry and information technology in November 2015.

They include Yantai CIMC Raffles, Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Company (ZPMC), Cosco (Qidong) Shipyard, Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding (SWS), China Merchants Heavy Industry (Shenzhen), Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Offshore, and Cosco Shipyard.

The sharpening of technology is a key requirement for the ‘white list’ offshore shipyards, as the government has stated that they need to make an annual investment of at least 2% of their yearly revenue into design and technology.

Xing Guobin, deputy minister of the ministry of industry and information technology, said at the CODIA opening ceremony that by 2020, the alliance aims to be one of the world’s leader in offshore engineering technology.