New ship order plunges by 98% in February

According to the latest statistics of , global shipbuilding industry signed only 193,000 DWT new ship deals in February down by 98.4%YoY reaching merely 1.5% of the single month's volume in 2004. Among the 7 vessels agreed in February there were 2 dry bulk cargo vessels, 2 multi-functional vessels, 2 chemical vessels and 1 RO RO passenger ship. Oil tanker saw no deal in February while container ship received zero order in the past 4 consecutive months. It is said China signed 4 vessels' deal with the total deadweight of 92,000 tonnes.
Mr Bao Zhangjing the senior analyst with China Shipbuilding Industrial Economic Research Center said "New ship order started to plunge since last Oct, and the gloomy atmosphere still is hovering over the shipbuilding industry by the moment."
Mr Gao Xiaochun with CITIC Group said the Baltic Dry Index a measure of commodity shipping costs, has rebounded to over 2,000 points recently, but BDI is not a direct reflection of dry bulk cargo shipping capacity and its recovery in the short term won't increase the new ship demand He said the situation would see no positive change in the H1 of 2009. He added that "I predicted the total new deal would reach 48 million deadweight tons, down by 70%YoY but seems it would be hard to reach even 40 million deadweight tons according to the current situation."
As a matter of fact, China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry pointed out in a report that the global shipbuilding industry would plummet further on the basis of 2008, with the optimistic prediction of 60 million deadweight tons and the pessimistic prediction of 40 million deadweight tons.
Mr Bao Zhangjing said it is worthwhile to notice that the price of the new ship also drops at the same time. He said that "By the end of February the Clarkson new ship price index posted at 159 points, down 7 points from the previous month with the drop range become wider. He said that many domestic shipbuilders are trying to merger other small and private shipyards, but the action could add more pressure to the enterprises, owing to the market is still on the downward trend.”