South Korea's shipbuilders ranked No.1 in new order intake for three consecutive months, beating Chinese rivals last month.
According to Clarksons, South Korea's shipbuilders' new order intake reached 1,463,425cgt (40 ships) in April, accounting for 64% of the world's total new orders of 2,286,157cgt. They ranked No.1 in new order intake for three consecutive months, beating Chinese shipbuilders with new orders totaling 708,956cgt (42 ships).
Order values of the South Korean shipbuilders ($5.328bn), which acquired orders for high value added vessels such as large sized containerships and LNG carriers, was more than four times as much as those of the Chinese shipbuilders ($1.295bn).
South Korea's newbuilding orders totaling 4,906,495cgt (134 ships) as of April this year were well above the Chinese orders totaling 2,814,465cgt (148 ships). Therefore, South Korean shipbuilders have high chances of beating the Chinese rivals in new orders in the entire 2011.  
South Korean shipbuilders' accumulated new order intake accounted for 55% in the world's new order intake, outstripping the Chinese rivals (32%) during January-April. Also, South Korean shipbuilders' new order value, totaling $19.384bn, was well above Chinese rivals, totaling $5.185bn.      
In terms of order backlogs, gap between South Korea and China got narrow, too. In the beginning of this month, Korea accounted for 32.3% (43,321,019cgt, 1,467 ships) in the world's order backlogs, going up by 0.3% point, while China accounted for 38.4% (51,476,266cgt, 2,993 ships), going down by 0.1% point, compared with last month respectively.  
In terms of output, South Korea, which lost its No. 1 slot to the Chinese rival for the first time last year, rebounded a little last month. While Korea's ship deliveries accounted for 43.7% in the world ship deliveries, totaling 917,861cgt (26 ships) last month, China's ship deliveries only accounted for 25.7% with 538,744cgt (30 ships).
From January to April, in terms of accumulated ship deliveries, China's shipbuilders (5,075,121cgt, 310 ships) surpassed the Korean shipbuilders (4,674,027cgt, 154 ships).
"The number of new orders for vessels, Korean shipbuilders have competitive advantage in, such as large sized containerships, LNG carriers and offshore plants, are increasing.
This gives the Korean shipbuilders advantageous position in competing with Chinese rivals for orders which center on bulkers.", an official from the shipbuilding industry said.