Even though China's shipyards received a surge of orders in the first three quarters of 2013, a recovery is still far off, industry experts said.

Low prices and a preponderance of orders for low-value vessels are undermining the sector, they added.

New orders totaled 38.06 million dead weight tons, up about 147 percent year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

The order backlog stood at 114 million DWT, down 5.7 percent year-on-year. However, it was up 6.6 percent from the end of 2012.

CSSC Jiangnan Heavy Industry Co Ltd, a Shanghai-based subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corp, reported that its January-September operating revenue dropped 18.25 percent to 583 million yuan ($95.7 million). The company's main products are large container ships, steel products, machinery and ship fittings,

But Jiangnan said that its performance was hurt by low ship prices and rising operating costs such as power, steel and labor, as well as delayed debt payments from 17 other CSSC-affiliated shipyards.

Geng Weixiang, vice chief engineer of Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co Ltd, another subsidiary of CSSC, said that even though it received many orders in the first three quarters, the prices of container and bulk ships hadn't gone up much.

"The industrial chain of China's shipbuilding sector is still weak. There's plenty of evidence that this industry is adrift amid hefty losses," Geng said. Chinese shipyards are only good at producing low-end ships such as container and bulk vessels, he added.

Meng Lingru, an industry analyst with Shanxi Securities Co, said a 30,000-DWT bulk carrier could sell for more than 300 million yuan before 2009 in any shipyard in Nantong, a shipbuilding base in East China's Jiangsu province. But the price of such vessels has since sunk to 170 million yuan.

"Steel and labor costs keep rising, making profits even thinner, and our company is preparing for another difficult year in 2014," said Ji Fenghua, board chairman of Nantong Mingde Group, a privately owned shipyard with 7,000 workers based in Jiangsu province.

"We have almost finished the orders that were placed in the past two years, and there are new ones coming in," Ji said. "Although we've received another 13 orders for vehicle and self-unloading bulk carriers this year, prices have decreased at least one-third compared with levels before the global recession.

"As winter is coming, we are trying hard to control our budget to further lower the cost, including gas use, switching off lights and saving water."

Making matters worse, prepayments by foreign fleet owners, especially from Greece, Portugal and Estonia, have dropped from 75 percent of the total cost to less than 30 percent. Because of falling demand for shipping, many shipowners also are delaying delivery and payment dates on new ship orders.

"They think of any excuse to delay payment, like changes of design or stricter quality checks," Ji said.

"They know they have no work for the ships, so they'd rather not take them. This puts a heavy burden on us."