Vessel exports of Zhoushan in Zhejiang Province, China are projecte to increase by 15 percent in 2015, showed data released by the local government.

The city's ship exports posted a total of US$2.538bn in 2014, up 6.68 percent from the US$2.379bn recorded in 2013.

According to Fu Zhiye, a local ship trade expert, the increase can be achieved if the cash flow of local yards improves this year, since some of the orders received years ago are scheduled to be delivered in 2015.

The 15-percent increase will translate to approximately US$380m or the total price for 13 Panamaxes, which is not difficult to achieve with enough cash flow, Fu told local media.

However, Fu warned that newbuilding trading volume may continue to fall amid weak global economy recovery.

"Take bulk carriers for example, the current price is only 50 percent of the peak time, down by nearly 50 percent, and prices of other ship types have dropped nearly 30 percent," Fu told local media.

Last year, yards in Zhoushan has received new orders amounting to 6.55 million dwt, sharing 85 percent of Zhejiang's total. Fu pointed out that the top ten local yards received new orders, but many yards received nothing.