China shipbuilding orders fall by 95% in four months

New orders placed with China's shipyards fell 95 percent during the first four months of this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said. Orders from January to April dropped to 990,000 deadweight tons, the ministry said on its Web site. New orders last month reached 200,000 deadweight tons, taking total order books to 195 million deadweight tons at the end of April, 7 percent higher than a year earlier, it said.
China CSSC Holdings Ltd. and Guangzhou Shipyard International Co., units of the country's biggest builder of vessels, both posted declines in first-quarter profit as orders dried up and they worked through high-priced steel inventories. Slower order flow also increased financing costs for Guangzhou Shipyard, the company said in an April 9 statement.
The yards completed 9.54 million deadweight tons of vessels this year, the ministry said.