Korea’s shipbuilding industry lost to rival China’s in November, slipping to second place in order intakes for the first time in a month. Korea had claimed the top spot in three months after knocking China off the top spot in October.
Global ship orders in November reached 1.59 million standardized equivalent tons (CGT), down 53 percent from the same period of 2023, according to British shipbuilding and shipping market analyst Clarkson Research on Dec. 5.
Korea received 570,000 CGT (36 percent) of those orders, losing the lead to China for the first time in a month. China remained at first place with 920,000 CGT (58 percent). Korea and China booked orders for 15 and 59 vessels, respectively.
Cumulative global ship orders for the first 11 months of this year totaled 38.09 million CGT (1,545 ships), down 20 percent from the same period of 2022. Korea and China accounted for 9.63 million CGT (191 vessels and 25 percent) and 2.29 million CGT (973 vessels and 58 percent), respectively.
As of last month, the global order backlogs stood at 125.42 million CGT, up 750,000 CGT from a month earlier. By country, the backlog was 60.47 million CGT (48 percent) for China and 39.54 million CGT (32 percent) for Korea.