S. Korean Shipbuilders rack up orders

2018-06-14

Korean shipbuilders inked more orders than anyone else in May, overcoming stiff competition from Chinese competitors while Japanese companies trailed behind.

According to data from British market tracker Clarksons Research on Tuesday, global shipbuilding orders amounted to 35 ships, or 1 million compensated gross tonnage (CGT), last month. Korea won orders to build 15 ships, or 550,000 CGT, taking 55 percent of the newly inked orders in the month, while China followed with 13 ships or 250,000 CGT. German shipbuilders inked orders to build two ships, or 90,000 CGT, while Japanese companies won no orders at all in May.

CGT is calculated by multiplying the tonnage of a ship by a coefficient determined according to the type and size of the vessel. It indicates how much work is necessary to build it.

While China seems to be close behind Korea when comparing the number of orders, there is a much bigger difference in CGT. This indicates that Korean shipbuilders won orders for higher-value added ships that are more complicated to build.

For instance, Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering specializes in making liquefied natural gas carriers and very large crude carriers, which are harder to make than the bulk carriers or smaller container ships that Chinese companies are mass producing.

DSME’s expertise helped it ink orders to build one liquefied natural gas carrier and two very large crude carriers worth $370 million during an international shipping exhibition dubbed Posidonia 2018 Exhibition held in Greece just last week.

Korean companies are also on top in total orders so far this year.

Korean shipbuilders won orders worth 4.1 million CGT from January through May, while China trailed behind with 3.59 million CGT and Japan with 1.13 million CGT.

In terms of backlog, China has the most at 28.22 million CGT. Korea’s backlog amounted to 16.96 million CGT, while Japan has 14.54 million CGT.

Source: Korea Joongang

Source from : hellenicshippingnews

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