S. Korean shipyards win world's largest new ship orders

South Korean shipbuilders clinched the largest amount of new ship orders placed in the world in the first four months of this year thanks to a rise in demand from European shipping lines, the government said Tuesday. The finance ministry said the combined orders won by local shipbuilders, such as Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Samsung Heavy Industries Co. and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., reached 2.40 million compensated gross tons (CGT) in the January-April period, or 43.6 percent of 5.50 million CGT placed worldwide.
This is the largest won by a single country and 500,000 CGT more than runner-up China that secured 1.90 million CGT, or 34.5 percent of the total in the cited period. Japan and European countries also won 200,000 CGT worth of ships.
"The reason why South Korea has been able to reclaim its No. 1 standing from China is due to drops in orders by Chinese shipping companies that signed contracts for new ships with Chinese yards last year," the ministry said. It added that there was a sharp rise in orders from European shipping lines that favor South Korean ships.
The latest report also showed that while total shipbuilding volume has dropped 23.7 percent on-year for local yards in the first quarter, exports only declined 6.4 percent because the country has been able to ship out value-added vessels such as drill ships.
It said that because of the backlog in orders, the country should continue to do well in exports, although there may be an overall drop in demand for container ships and liquefied natural gas carriers.