Affected by the sluggish international shipping market, even the biggest Chinese shipbuilding province Jiangsu has suffered greatly from diving new orders.

In the first three quarters, the three main shipbuilding indices all underwent substantial drop, especially new orders which fell by 45.9% to only 208 vessels of 9.58m dwt.

Jiangsu shipbuilding industry has always been playing a vital role in China even internationally. Last year, the province’s market share in global shipbuilding industry grew from 12% to 15.3%. Although Jiangsu’s three industrial indices are still No.1 domestically, its three indices increase has been thwarted since the beginning of 2011.

According to the statistics of Jiangsu Economic and Information Technology Commission (JSEITC), newbuilding output came up to 378 vessels of 17.68m dwt by increasing by 13.1%, new orders totaled 208 vessel with falling by 45.9% while orderbook dropped by 9.8% to 1222 vessels of 65.04 dwt.

JSEITC pointed out that shipbuilding market is now shifting into buyers’ market from sellers’ market with intense competition. Meanwhile, new orders are becoming more concentrated to competitive enterprises.