Korea Ranks First in Shipbuilding Order Receipts for Four Months Running

Korean shipbuilders have ranked first in new shipbuilding order receipts for four straight months.

Korea won 735,000 CGT, 73.5 percent of the world's total orders of one million CGT placed in August, said the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) on Sep. 8. Korean shipbuilders have received the largest amount of orders in the world for the fourth consecutive month since May.

Korean shipbuilders swept all orders for three LNG carriers and 13 of the 14 tankers (including 10 LNG-powered vessels). Last month's orders boosted Korea's order receipts in the first eight months of the year to US$11.3 billion, larger than China's US$10.93 billion. Korea’s orders added up to US$9.6 billion in the January-July period, smaller than China’s US$10.4 billion.

However, in terms of tonnage, Korea came in second by posting 4.46 million CGT after China's 5.2 million CGT in the January-August period.

By August, Korea received orders for 24 of 27 LNG carriers and 10 of 17 very large crude carriers (VLCCs). Except for China’s and Japan’s orders placed on local shipbuilders, Korea landed most of the world’s orders.

Korea’s January-August shipbuilding volume was 6.67 million CGT, up 14.0 percent from the same period of last year. Due to an order cliff, last year's shipbuilding volume dropped to 7.72 million CGT, the lowest point but monthly shipbuilding volume has been on the rise since April as orders increased in 2017 and 2018. As shipbuilding increased, the employment of the shipbuilding industry recovered to 110,000 in August of this year after hitting the lowest point of 105,000 workers in August of last year.