Korean Shipbuilders Beat Chinese Rivals in January Orders

SEOUL, Feb. 7 (Yonhap) – South Korean shipbuilders ranked first last month in the volume of orders won, beating their Chinese rivals, industry data showed Friday.

According to the data compiled by market researcher Clarkson Research Services, South Korean shipyards won orders totaling 1.68 million compensated gross tons (CGTs) in January, more than doubling from 779,356 CGTs a year ago.

The figure accounts for 45.4 percent of overall global vessel orders of 3.7 million CGTs placed in the month, which was down 9.4 percent from a year ago.

Chinese shipbuilders won orders amounting to 1.25 million CGTs, taking up 34 percent of the total.

In terms of the number of vessels, South Korean shipbuilders obtained orders for 52 vessels, behind 60 ships for Chinese shipbuilders.

CGT, an indicator of the amount of work needed to build a given ship, is used as a tool to compare inter-country shipbuilding output. It is the generally used to measure the volume of orders received.

Higher CGT means that South Korean shipbuilders won more orders for large-scale vessels, which are more difficult and complicated to produce, industry watchers said.

In step with the promising start, key local shipbuilders – Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung Heavy Industries Co. and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering – raised their orders target for this year by up to 15 percent compared with last year.