Good Shipbuilding News
According to industry sources, global ship orders totaled 47 vessels and 1,089,540 CGT last month, the lowest level since September 2009. Korea took 760,000 CGT of it to beat China, for the first time in four months, by a margin of 530,000 CGT. Japan won no orders at all.
During the first 10 months of this year, Korean shipbuilders clinched 249 contracts, 50 less than Chinese, but the former recorded 9,793,939 CGT to enjoy the highest market share in the world while the latter posted 7,038,455 CGT. The unit of CGT is the weight of a ship taking into account the added value of the ship and the level of difficulty of building it. For example, a higher tonnage is applied to LNG carriers, which require more advanced technology, than very large crude carriers (VLCCs) and the like.
Japanese shipbuilders obtained orders for 238 ships with 6,539,689 CGT during the same period.
“Chinese and Japanese shipbuilders focus on bulk carriers, which are easier to build, while their Korean counterparts are producing more high-value-added ships,” an industry insider remarked, adding, “Nevertheless, the number of orders is on the decline worldwide, and Korean shipbuilders are concerned over their future.”