South Korean Shipbuilders Outperform Chinese Rivals in August

Clarksons Research reported on Sept. 7 that new shipbuilding orders totaled 1.37 million CGT (47 ships) worldwide last month and 0.78 million CGT (16), 0.37 million CGT (23) and 0.19 million CGT (7) went to South Korean, Chinese and Japanese shipbuilders, respectively.

For the first eight months of this year, the orders totaled 32.39 million CGT, up 165 percent from a year ago. South Korean shipbuilders won 13.66 million CGT, up 406 percent from a year ago, while Chinese shipbuilders took 14.53 million CGT.

These days, very large crude carrier, A-Max tanker and large LNG vessel orders are showing higher rates of increase. When it comes to LNG carriers with a capacity of 140,000 cubic meters or more, a total of 38 orders were placed and 37 went to South Korean shipbuilders this year. In the meantime, orders for container carriers with a capacity of more than 12,000 TEU surged more than 1,400 percent, signaling a recovery of the global marine transport industry.