All industries have their ups and downs, but it is how a business fares during the rockier times that sort the successes from the failures. At the mercy of global trade, shipbuilding industry chief financial officers and treasurers are as much global economists as micro-managers of their own business.
“The shipbuilding business is cyclical because it is affected by international trade and shipping demand,” said Sean Wang, CFO of China Rongsheng Heavy Industries Group, one of mainland China’s largest shipbuilders. His firm has been more successful than most, emerging as the largest non state-owned shipbuilding company in terms of total order book, measured by deadweight tonnage DWT, in mainland...