On October 14, New Zealand¡¯s Foreign Minister and Railway Minister Winston Peters announced: The New Zealand government has handed the order to build two Cook Strait ferries to Guangzhou Shipyard International, a unit of China State Shipbuilding Corporation.New Zealand's government official news showed that the country will build two road and rail transportation dual-use ferries, ship size 200 meters, each can carry about 1,500 passengers, 40 train carriages, is expected to be built in 2029 to strengthen South North Island traffic, will be built by Broadway International, construction costs are still in negotiation.

New Zealand¡¯s two north-northern islands are separated by the Cook Strait and now run by Interislander ferries. Most ferries were built in the 1990s or earlier, with problems such as aging, high maintenance costs, low energy efficiency and failure frequency, affecting navigation.

The project originally originated from the New Korea Cooperation Agreement, New Zealand has invested over $600 million (about $300 million)¡£ Despite bearing high sunk costs, New Zealand decisively terminated its cooperation with South Korea Shipyard and handed it over to China companies.

The new side said the decision was pragmatic and wise, and it is expected to save billions of dollars for taxpayers, expressing confidence.The loss of more than 600 million yuan, New Zealand is still so propaganda and reasonable, it is clear that the strong power of Chinese enterprises gives them confidence, this decision seems worth celebrating.

This is also discussed from the New Zealand iRex project.

In 2020, KiwiRail launched the iReX Cross-Island Resilience Connection Project, which aims to update ships and build a cross-island transportation system that adapts to climate change, energy transformation, and can meet the transportation needs of the next century.

The project was defined as a comprehensive project at the national level, including the construction of a new generation of dual-fuel (LNG+ diesel) rail ferries, upgrading the infrastructure of two major ports, and achieving higher safety standards and low-carbon targets, supported by the Labour government, was called the "New Zealand Green Transportation Flag Project".

The total investment of the project is approximately 750 million yen, 500 million yen for the construction of new ferries, 250 million yen for port transformation and upgrading, creating the record for New Zealand¡¯s largest ship purchase contract. Project costs surged sharply, exceeding NZ$3 billion. After the new coalition government came to power, in order to reduce fiscal expenditures, it announced the cancellation of the iReX project in December 2023, and the contract undertaken by South Korea was terminated.¡£

Although the new government decided to terminate the iReX project, the funds invested cannot be ignored, and some contracts have come into effect and incurred costs. Accounting shows that The project is due to pay $1.4 billion in compensation, plus paid costs, and total expenses of approximately $6.7 billion.New Zealand's huge investment was not even seen in the new ship, only the concept design. Peters said in a press release that the acquisition would save taxpayers ¡°billions of New Zealand dollars.¡±

However, the project must be advanced, and a reasonable explanation must be given for the direction of hundreds of millions of dollars. Choosing to cooperate with China can not only avoid continuous complicated entanglements with South Korea, but also turn the original waste of hundreds of millions of dollars into a positive effect of saving billions of dollars in publicity.

Nicola Willis, then Treasury Secretary, proposed to replace the original plan with a small ro-ro ferry, but Winston Peters opposed it. Peters abandons Korean plan after taking over and promotes it in cooperation with China's Guangzhou Shipbuilding International Co., Ltd¡£China Guangzhou Shipbuilding Corporation is the largest modern integrated shipbuilding enterprise in South China. It was established in 1954 and has been listed. Currently, Ferry Holdings Limited is negotiating price with China Guangzhou Shipbuilding Corporation, and the government plans to announce a complete plan including a port infrastructure agreement by the end of the year.

The new ferry designed by China Guangzhou Shipyard carries 1,500 passengers, 40 railway freight cars, and has 2.4 kilometers of lanes. It is more compact and economical than the Korean scheme, and is regarded as a "pragmatic and efficient upgrade". Two new ferries are expected to arrive in New Zealand in 2029, and Peters said the new scheme would save New Zealand taxpayers billions of New Zealand dollars.

New Zealand¡¯s initiative reveals a profound shift in the global shipbuilding industry: The global production capacity of civilian high-end ro-ro ships and road-rail ships is accelerating to converge into China¡£Relying on vertical integration of the supply chain, efficient batch construction and segmented assembly technology, China has significantly shortened delivery cycles and reduced unit costs, creating systemic advantages.

Among the same specification of shipbuilding projects, the shipbuilding industry in Western countries generally faces the long-term, high price, and low efficiency difficulties; while choosing China, like opening the "high-speed direct car", customers can only sign an agreement and wait for receipt, which is thanks to the significant advantage of China's shipbuilding industry's entire process of autonomous control and extremely low risk.

Therefore, in the field of large-scale infrastructure and high-end manufacturing, western countries are gradually realizing that China's help is often needed to achieve rapid, high-quality and economical construction goals. What China provides is stable and reliable "certainty" guarantee, which is of immeasurable value for national-level procurement.

This is enough to show that China has a huge advantage. New Zealand, as a member of the West¡¯s core small circle, the Five Eyes Alliance, is determined to hand over its orders to China and is proud of it. This is not only the simple act of handing over orders, but also represents the trend of global industrial development. In the field of infrastructure construction, especially in the field of high-demand national projects, the Chinese model has become the only choice.