S. Korean Shipbuilders Outperform Chinese Competitors in H1

South Korean shipbuilders won 40% of international contracts for new ships in the first half of this year to beat their Chinese counterparts and rise back to the top in three years in terms of H1 performance. Chinese shipbuilders surpassed South Korean companies in terms of the number of new contracts, but the latter outperformed the former when it comes to compensated gross tonnage (CGT), which means the latter won more contracts for expensive ships.

According to Clarkson Research, worldwide orders for new ships totaled 12.34 million CGT (441 ships) in H1 this year and South Korea and China took 4.96 million CGT (115 ships) and 4.39 million CGT (203 ships), respectively. For reference, the figures were 0.86 million CGT (12%) versus three million CGT (40%) in H1, 2016 and 3.21 million CGT (28%) versus 3.93 million CGT (35%) in H1, 2017.

The worldwide orders added up to 1.38 million CGT (63 ships) last month and 1.39 million CGT (54 ships) in the previous month. The H1 figure rose from 7.48 million CGT to 11.31 million CGT from 2016 to 2017 and then to 12.34 million CGT this year.

Last month, China, South Korea and Japan took 570,000 CGT (37 ships), 530,000 CGT (18 ships) and 60,000 CGT (three ships), respectively. Japanese shipbuilders’ H1 performance stood at 1.48 million CGT (58 ships), equivalent to a market share of 12%.

The order backlog of South Korean shipbuilders continued to increase unlike those of Chinese and Japanese. Last month, the worldwide backlog fell 640,000 CGT to 75.27 million CGT. During the period, that of South Korea increased by 260,000 CGT, after an increase of 60,000 CGT in the preceding month, whereas those of China and Japan fell 200,000 CGT and 600,000 CGT, respectively. At present, China’s backlog totals 28.25 million CGT (38%), followed by South Korea’s 17.48 million CGT (23%) and Japan’s 14.19 million CGT (19%).

In South Korea, each of Hyundai Heavy Industries Group and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering met approximately 43% of its goal for this year in H1. The percentage stands at 31% for Samsung Heavy Industries.