South Korean shipbuilders, led by industry leader Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., clinched the largest amount of new orders in May, retaining the top spot for the fourth consecutive month, BusinessKorea reported based on industry sources, including Clarkson Research Services.
Data shows a total of 90 orders for tankers were placed worldwide during the first five months of this year, and 58 of them went to Korean shipbuilders while Chinese and Japanese shipbuilders took 18 and 14, respectively.
Japanese rivals took orders worth 400,000 CGTs, followed by Chinese ones with 220,000 CGTs, the data showed.
South Korea has retained its status as the world’s leading shipbuilding country in terms of new orders since February.
In May alone, orders for 41 ships totaling 1.66 million CGTs were placed around the globe, down 36 vessels and 110,000 CGTs from the previous month, the data showed.
According to the data compiled by global researcher Clarkson Research Services, South Korean shipyards bagged new orders totaling 820,000 compensated gross tons last month.
On a deadweight tonnage (DWT) basis, Korea took nine million DWT to record a market share of 66 percent, which is higher than that for the same period of last year.
In 2014, a total of 303 orders were placed for that type of ship, and Korean shipbuilders obtained 124 of them while their Japanese and Chinese counterparts had to be content with 96 and 83 orders, respectively. Korea’s market share reached 52 percent on a DWT basis and 36 percent on a unit basis.
China’s outpacing of local shipbuilders, including Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering and Hyundai Heavy Industries, shows Korea’s lack of investment in the vessels, which transport equipment for offshore energy resource production, an industry source said.