Yachts in China
Yacht, a new way of creation, integrates the functions of sailing, sports, entertainment and leisure. In developed countries, yacht has become senior durable goods for individuals and families. It is more recreational and luxury than cars. In developing countries, yacht serves more as public recreation item than private possession. It appears in park and tourist attractions for people to ride. Yacht can be categorized into luxury yacht, sailing yacht, fishing yacht, motor yacht and inflatable boat. The market price for a top-grade luxury yacht is as much as millions of dollars, some of them tens millions of dollars. A cheap yacht is about 50,000 dollars. So it is very popular among developed countries, especially those close to sea. In US, there are more than 17 million yachts, which means that in every 16 people there is one who has yacht. The number in China is 1:1300,000.
The world’s yacht market has long been led by US, Italy, France and England. US builds about 20,000 yachts every year, ranking the first in the world, followed by France and England, with yields 7,900 and 3,300 respectively. Different from these countries, China did not experience a development process of yacht, but enter the high-end and luxury yacht market of manufacturing and purchasing directly. China’s yacht manufacturing started from 1970s’, with a policy advocating the development of high-speed transportation and tourism. Now, China has 374 factories producing boat, 50 of which focus on manufacturing yacht. 80% to 90% of the yachts produced in China are for export. Now China has ranked sixth in the world in terms of comprehensive ability of yacht manufacturing. What’s more, Chinese yachts are 20% to 30% cheaper than the average world price, making them more competitive. The export amount is now more than 200 million dollar per year.
Most yacht buyers in China are rich and powerful people and consortiums. These people are still responsible for the 100,000 purchases of yachts in the following 10 years. If the average price for a yacht is 100,000 dollar, there will be a 10 billion-dollar-trade in the following 10 years in the yacht market in China. Now there are more than 80 yacht clubs in China, each with 1000 members. An average membership fee is 10,000 dollar per year. Meanwhile, the yacht market in China also pulls its relative industries, such as sales agent, yacht fixing and maintenance, yacht parking, driving license training and so on.
In recent years, a lot of domestic manufactures of yacht have emerged, such as Qsingdao Sunvici, Horizon, Ocean Alexander, Hansheng Yacht, Sunbird, DHS, Kadaya, HeySea, Aquastar, Meilan etc. Yachts produces by these domestic manufactures are not as good as those produced by the world’s top yacht brand, such as Riva, Wally, Princess, Ferretti or Azimut, but their price are much lower, about 10% to 30%.
China yacht market is quite promising, but still some problems exist. First, because China entered the world market in a relatively later period of the market development, so there is no “yacht culture” in China. In developed countries, such as US, yacht is a very common way for ordinary people to have recreation, but in China few people have experienced yacht. Even among rich people in China, some people purchase yachts but do not fully use their function of recreation and business. So it will be long way for China to form such a kind of “yacht culture”. Second, the policy and infrastructure lag behind the market development. Some cities lack marinas for yachts, yacht association and club, after-sale service and so on. But we can predict that these facilities will accommodate the increasing demand and that the yacht market in China will boom in the near future.
For a complete research on yachts in China (in French)
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