China leading in shipbuilding industry, recorded contracts in its history

In 2009, China managed to bypass the volume of shipbuilding of South Korea, which had been a leader in recent twenty years. For the first time in its history China shipbuilders have outrun its major rival. Last year, China won 44.4% of contracts while South Korea only 40.1%, with Japan coming third, PrimaMedia reports citing statistics from the Clarksons Plc London agency. In 2009 China shipbuilding companies were contracted to build ships of total tonnage at 53.2 million CGT, South Korea - 52.8 million CGT.
"In fact, the Chinese shipbuilding industry today is not quite a very rosy picture," says Eugene Kolesov, CEO of Optim Consult. "Among the 10 top global shipbuilders, are listed South Korea’s seven still leading in values and quality of its products. However, the Chinese have proved again that in the price battle they are still beating others", the expert said.
As to statistics from the China Research Institute of Shipbuilding, the value of new orders in 2009 in South Korea totaled more than $9 billion, in China - about half of that number. In addition, recent year China appeared to be the largest global shipbuilders, but 30% of its contracts were suspended for an indefinite period, 65% of Chinese shipbuilers were not getting the orders in recent months of 2009. At that, the local shipyards founded during recent economic slump have had no orders at all for 2010.