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Ordering Surges at Asia's Biggest Shipbuilding Yards

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Published May 30, 2021 12:08 PM by The Maritime Executive

China’s shipbuilders have experienced an exceptional start to the year, with new orders up by more than 180 percent for the first four months of 2021.

China’s output during the first four months was about 12.8 million dwt, seeing a 16.6 percent rise. According to figures issued by the China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry, the orderbook on hand as of the end of April was 84 million dwt, a rise of about 4.5 percent.

During January-April in 2021, the total shipbuilding yield in export orders was responsible for 4.2 percent of the overall output of China’s export. According to statistics from 75 large shipbuilding companies, the Chinese shipbuilding firms involved had an operational revenue of $11.2 billion during January-April of this year, up by more than 10 percent over the year, and incurred a gross loss of $23.3 million.

In the first quarter, China's cumulative shipbuilding output amounted to about 41 percent of total shipbuilding output globally, followed closely by South Korea and Japan with 34 percent and 22 shares, respectively. South Korea took the lead in new order volume, securing 52 percent of the global total of 10.2 million compensated gross tonnes (CGT) ordered in the quarter. The total order backlog of Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, Samsung Heavy Industries, and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering climbed by 24 percent, amounting to 52,604 billion won - equal to about two years of shipbuilding output.

KSOE saw its order backlog climb by 16 pecent to 25.3 trillion won. For Samsung Heavy Industries, the order backlog rose by 35 percent, while Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering saw a 28 percent gain worth 11,085 billion won.

During the April 2020-March 2021 fiscal year, Japanese shipbuilders' export orders for new ships climbed for the first time in two years. Japanese shipbuilding companies won export orders for new ships totaling 8.9 million gross tonnes (gt) in 2020-21, a six percent increase from the previous year.