S. Korea Trails China in Shipbuilding Orders in H1 of 2010

South Korea’s foreign ship orders in the first half of 2010 are found to have ranked second after the first runner China. According to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE) and the Korea Shipbuilders’ Association (KOSHIPA) on Thursday , the domestic shipbuilders have won orders of 4.62 million compensated gross tonnage (CGT), up 450% from the same period last year. The nation won 38% of the total shipbuilding orders awarded globally in the first half of 2010, second only to China, which took up 45% of total orders worth 5.02 million CGT.
MKE said that the amount of the nation’s shipbuilding orders received until April was the largest to rank first in the global market, but since May, China has outperformed South Korea in winning orders. Shipbuilding orders clinched by the domestic firms are estimated to total $9.1 billion to increase 116% year-on-year.
By types of vessel, the shipbuilders received orders of 63 units of 83,000 deadweight tonnage (dwt) Kamsarmax bulk carriers, but the they failed to win orders of container ships.
Due to a delay in the date of delivery, the amount of ships built during the six-month period fell nearly 13% from the same period last year to register 7.47 million CGT, and the shipbuilding backlog of orders also went down 18% from the previous year to 49.42 million CGT.
The amount of shipbuilding orders placed in the first half of 2010 worldwide is estimated to stand at 12.18 million CGT, up 223% from the same period last year.