China No. 1 in Order Backlog

Korea has claimed the No. 1 spot in global shipbuilding orders for two consecutive years.

Korea has claimed the No. 1 spot in global shipbuilding orders for two consecutive years.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy reported on Jan. 6 that Korea’s shipbuilding orders reached 9.43 million CGTs in 2019, accounting for 37.2 percent of the global total of 25.29 million CGTs. China came in second with 8.25 million CGTs.

In order backlogs, China is ranked first with 26.93 million CGTs. Korea is second with 22.6 million CGTs.

In December 2019, Korea swept orders for large LNG carriers (11 units), taking 1.74 million CGTs (56.7 percent, a yearly high) out of the global total of 3.07 million CGTs.

By ship type, Korean shipbuilders won orders mainly for high value-added ships including 48 (94 percent) of 51 large LNG carriers (174k), 18 (58 percent) of 31 very large crude carriers (VLCCs) and 22 (61 percent) of 36 super-large container ships.

Last year, Korea’s shipbuilding volume stood at 9.51 million CGTs, a year on year increase of 23.1 percent. It hit a record low of 7.74 million CGTs in 2018, but has been recovering since the second quarter of 2019 thanks to increased orders. The number of shipbuilding employees also recovered to 110,000 in July 2019 after reaching 105,000, its lowest level, in August 2018.

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