CHINA State Shipbuilding Co, the publicly-traded unit of the country's biggest ship builder, said first-quarter profit more than doubled after rising demand led to higher prices for vessels.

Net income climbed to 984 million yuan (US$140 million) from 417 million yuan a year earlier, the Shanghai-based company said. Sales gained 16 percent to 3.98 billion yuan.

Record imports of raw materials to China and exports of consumer goods are spurring vessel orders for the nation's ship builders as they expand to surpass South Korea as the world's biggest manufacturer of ships. Sales in 2008 may rise to 24.4 billion yuan from last year's 17.9 billion yuan, the company said on March 18.

China State Shipbuilding and its domestic competitors booked orders at record prices last year while order backlogs more than tripled, Bloomberg News said.

Its parent, China State Shipbuilding Corp aims to become the world's biggest ship builder by 2015, Director Xu Miao said on April 23. The parent holds contracts for 50 million deadweight tons of ships, or 10 percent of the global total.