The partnership between Japan's Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) and China's China Ocean Shipping Group (Cosco) delayed the second phase of construction at its shipyard in Dalian.

Tomokazu Taniguchi, president of Kawasaki Heavy's shipbuilding division, said that a second dock with a 1m dwt capacity scheduled to be built by early 2012, will be delayed until 2015 at the earliest.

Mr Taniguchi said that Kawasaki Heavy had not received orders for newbuildings for more than six months.

"Under such circumstances the second dock should be postponed," he said.

The first phase of the project, which was commissioned in 2007, will be completed on schedule at the end of this year and will offer 2m dwt shipbuilding capacity.

The first phase, which cost $500m, will be used primarily for the construction of tankers and large bulk carriers.

Cosco owns 70% of the new facility with the remaining 30% owned by Kawasaki Heavy.

The agreement for the Dalian facility came eight years after the establishment of Nantong Cosco KHI Ship Engineering (Nacks), the yard jointly set up by Cosco and Kawasaki Heavy Industries at Nantong in Jiangsu province.

Nacks, which was set up at a cost of $240m, has a 300,000 dwt dry dock and focuses on the production of handymax bulkers, VLCCs, 5,400-teu boxships, 173,000-dwt capesize bulkers and 5,000 vehicle capacity pure car carriers.

By the rescheduled date of completion of 2015, Nacks and the Dalian facility would have an annual capacity totalling 5m dwt.