Losing Dominance
Due to a chase of Japanese and Chinese shipbuilders, Korea’s three major shipbuilders, once the world’s top threes, are gradually losing ground in the market.
According to Clarkson, a U.K.-based research center, on March 20, Hyundai Heavy Industries and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering won the first and second place with backlog of orders of 8.83 million CGT, or 204 ships, and 8.44 million CGT, or 139 ships, respectively, as of the end of February. Japan’s Imabari Shipbuilding came in third with backlog of orders of 6.96 million CGT, or 244 ships, followed by Samsung Heavy Industries with 5.08 million CGT, or 101 ships.
Chinese shipbuilders are also included in the world’s top 10 list. Yangzijiang Shipbuilding ranked fifth with 3.31 million CGT, or 130 ships, while Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding and Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding took seventh and ninth place with 2.84 million CGT, or 74 ships, and 2.61 million CGT, or 55 ships, respectively.
An official from a large shipbuilding company said, “As Japanese and Chinese shipbuilders made a clean sweep of national orders from last year, their backlog of orders increased. Five or six years ago, the three Korean shipbuilders accounted for 70 percent of the global market, which is now down to 30 percent as opposed to China’s 40 percent and Japan’s 30 percent.”