Korea Regains No.1 Ranking in Global Shipbuilding

The world's number one shipbuilder, Hyundai Heavy Industries, failed to receive any new orders in 2009. And this applies to most of Korea's large shipbuilding companies as well. Back in 2007, new orders for domestic shipbuilders added up to 32 million tons.
But, the amount was nearly cut in half in 2008 and plunged to one-tenth of the 2007 volume last year after the global financial crisis hit the industry hard.
As a result, Korea lost the top place in the global shipbuilding industry to China.
However, things began to change starting earlier this year.
Hyundai Heavy Industries' outstanding performance in the offshore plant market has increased new orders by almost 200 percent to 1.5 million tons in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period in 2009.
And the nation beat its biggest rivals, China and Japan, to regain the top spot.
However, the amount of ship orders is still low compared to the industry's boom years between 2003 and 2008.
Industry experts and the government expect new ship orders to gradually grow as the shipping industry recovers.
Especially, the upward trend of the freight index for different types of ships and increase in orders for domestic shipbuilders in offshore plant markets are expected to improve performances starting from the second quarter.