China will add 790 new standards to the shipbuilding industry this year to make it more international, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China's top industry regulator.

The country had 1,984 standards in this industry by the end of 2011, with about 70 percent of them being adapted international standards, the ministry said.

However, the country's shipbuilding industry still falls behind global development, especially in the adoption of global standards and ocean engineering equipment production, added the ministry.

According to a previous report, China's shipbuilding industry faces problems such as declining demand and intensified competition.

The country received only about 5.59 million deadweight tons in new orders in the first quarter, a drop of 48.7 percent from a year before.

The built ships only had 11.2 million deadweight tons in the first quarter this year, down 22.5 percent year-on-year, according to the China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry.

tuoyannan@chinadaily.com.cn