Highest Growth among Global Players

South Korea made the biggest growth against China and Japan in the amount of new orders in 2017.
South Korea made the biggest growth against China and Japan in the amount of new orders in 2017.

 

The amount of new orders received by South Korean shipyards stood at 6.45 compensated gross tonnage (CGT) last year, up 198.6 percent from a year ago. South Korea made the biggest growth against China and Japan. The country took second place in terms of amount of order backlog after China, falling short of 274 CGT. South Korea also came in second in terms of orderbook value by a head, remaining at the same levels thanks to its high value added vessel contracts.

According to British shipbuilding and marine industry tracker Clarkson Research Services on January 9, the amount of global-wide orders came to 23.22 million CGT last year. The figure surged 78.3 percent from 13.02 million CGT a year earlier. The shipbuilding market showed a recovery trend for the first time in a year.

By country, China ranked first with 9.19 million CGT, or 426 vessels, of new orders, followed by South Korea with 6.45 CGT, or 176 vessels, and Japan with 1.99 million CGT, or 98 vessels. South Korea showed the biggest growth in terms of amount of new orders at 198.6 percent last year against the 86 percent gain of China and 13.7 percent of Japan.

In particular, South Korea and China showed a big gap in terms of amount of orders but not in terms of orderbook value. South Korea, which mostly makes value-added vessels, nearly matched China in orderbook value with US$15.3 billion (16.37 trillion won) versus the latter’s US$15.5 billion (16.59 trillion won). On the other hand, Japan’s book came to US$3.2 billion (3.42 trillion won).

The global order backlog stood at 77.48 million CGT at the end of December last year, up 1.3 million CGT from 76.18 million CGT at the previous month. South Korea’s order backlog rose 0.26 million CGT from 15.99 CGT at the end of November to 16.25 million CGT at the end of December. China’s order backlog also increased 1.05 million CGT from 27.66 million CGT to 28.71 million CGT over the same period. In contrast, Japan continued to see its order backlog decrease in December.

The Clarkson Newbuilding Price Index came to 125 points in December last year, showing a steady growth after recording the lowest mark in March at 121 points. The Clarkson Newbuilding Price Index is calculated by averaging the US$ per dwt values of the various ship types. The base of 100 is taken as the average index value as of January 1988. Higher than 100 of the newbuilding price index means that ship prices went up. 

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