Certification and acceptance tests usually take more than 10 months when combined altogether, at least by the standards we are legally and practically bound to oblige. I am not saying this to undermine Chinese Navy or worship ours but from the perspective of safety and platform security, it is essential that the building period from laying the first block to declaring the ship operational goes smoothly as planned and any malfunction and exploitation gets repaired.
There is a reason for why huge number of maintenance and safety accidents occur in Asian navies, particularly India and previously Russia. No matter who they serve, life of sailors should not be jeopardized at the expense of delivery times.
Take the first I-class frigate for example..
January 2021: Laid to sea
May 2022: Port acceptance tests
September 2023: Delivered to navy
January 2023: Cruise tests (contrary to its name, in addition to mobility; weapons sytems and sensors are also tested)
These dates are of course dependent on other factors too like politics, economy, engineering and more. I think our fellow engineer
@ANMDT can enlighten us on why our naval ship building time and process is longer than that of Chinese, because I am not 100% sure and might as well as be wrong.