A marine diesel engine is the major power equipment of a vessel, with the cost accounting for around 10% of the total. It can be divided into low-speed, medium-speed and high-speed marine diesel engines according to therotational speed.

In 2015, the global marine diesel engine market size was 33.43 million kilowatts, up 10.2% from a year earlier. The globalmarine diesel engine production was mainly concentrated in China, Japan, and South Korea. And South Korea mainly produced low-speed marine diesel engines while China and Japan primarily focused on medium-speed engines.

In 2015, fuelled by the growing starts in vessels, the output of marine diesel engines in China rose by 15.1% year on year to 16.99 million kilowatts, with the output of low-speed, medium-speed, and high-speed engines accounting for 41.2%, 40.1%, and 18.7%, respectively.

In China, marine diesel enginesare mainlyproduced through patent licensing. Low-speed engines are absolutely dominated by MAN,Wartsila, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries; in medium-speed engine market, Wartsila, MAN, and Caterpillar represented a combined market share of 82% (in 2015); high-speed engine brands primarily include MTU, Deutz, MWM, SACM, Pielstick, Ruston, and Paxman.

China's marine diesel engine market started late, so much so that it is poor in production technology and R&D capability. Therefore, most engine products with high technical content are still reliant on imports. In 2015, China imported USD1.07 billion worth ofmarine diesel engines and exported USD94.95 millionengines, with a trade deficit of as much as USD970 million.

In China’s low-speed diesel enginemarket, Hudong Heavy Machinery, Dalian Marine Diesel, and Yichang Marine Diesel Engine accounted for an aggregate market share of roughly 95.9%; in medium-speed diesel enginemarket, Weichai Heavy Machinery and CSSC Marine Powermade upa 58.9% market share; high-speed diesel engine manufacturers mainly include Weichai Heavy Machinery, Shaanxi Diesel Engine Heavy Industry, and Henan Diesel Engine Industry, of which Weichai Heavy Machinery has a market share of around 26%.

To improve the competitiveness in marine diesel engine market, major Chinese diesel engine manufacturers are working on new product development.

Hudong Heavy Machinery is the largest manufacturer of low-speed marine diesel engines in China (a roughly 65% share in domesticmarket). It gained a 51% stake in CSSC-MES Diesel in 2013. In April 2016, the company’s high-pressure marine air supply system became China’s first certified FGSS, thus breaking the monopoly of Japan and South Korea in the product market.

In October 2015, CSSC Marine Power renewed the contract with MAN Diesel & Turbofor another 10 years of production of four-stroke medium speed engines. In May 2016, the company’s 6S60ME low-speed diesel engine started operation. The latest designed model is the largest diesel engine constructed by CSSC Marine Power, which weighs approximately 390 tons.

Henan Diesel Engine Industry released the first domestic HPCR high-speed high-power diesel engine -- CHD622V20CR in December 2015, a move that helped fill the gap in the domestic 3500kw-above high-speed diesel engine market.

Yichang Marine Diesel Engine completed the bench test of its first 8S60ME-C8.2 diesel enginein August 2015, and the performance indicators of the product satisfied the design requirements.With a rated power of 14100KW, it could be the largest diesel engine product in power since the company’s founding.