Japan Ship Orders Sink 75.5 Percent in September

Japanese export ship orders sank for the 12th consecutive month in September on a year-on-year basis, tumbling 75.5 percent to 543,500 gross tons, according to figures released by the Japan Ship Exporters' Association on Tuesday. The year-on-year pace of decline in September quickened from 66.8 percent in August and was the fastest in four months.
Japan is one of the world's top shipbuilding nations along with South Korea and China. The September figures confirmed that no sign of a long-awaited recovery in ship owners' flagging demand for new vessels is yet on the horizon.
Last month, Takao Motoyama, chairman of the Shipbuilders' Association of Japan, painted a gloomy picture of the industry, saying, "We have to prepare ourselves for a continued slump in new shipbuilding orders for some time to come." Motoyama is also chairman of Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding Co.
The nation's export ship orders suddenly started to plunge in October last year due to the deep global economic downturn.
In September, Japanese shipbuilders received orders for only six export ships -- three bulk carriers totaling 102,900 gross tons and three oil tankers totaling 440,600 gross tons.
During the January-September period of this year, Japanese shipbuilders received orders for 86 export ships totaling 4.5 million gross tons, down a whopping 75.2 percent from the same nine-month period of last year.
Of the 86 ships, 63 are bulk carriers totaling 2.5 million gross tons, 18 are oil tankers totaling 1.7 million gross tons, three are general cargo vessels totaling 216,000 gross tons and the remaining two are other ships totaling 14,000 gross tons.