China remains the world’s top shipbuilding nation, but new research indicates its lead is shrinking.
According to the latest survey by Clarkson Research, China delivered a total of 1,177 ships in 2011 with 67.2 million DWT. The closest competitor was South Korea, with 531 ships and 53.6 DWT, followed by Japan in third position (462 ships, 32 million DWT). In January of this year, China delivered 105 ships, more than twice as many as South Korea (50 ships) and also more tonnage, at 8.4 million DWT (versus 5 million DWT for South Korea).
However, a significant change in the market conditions emerged at the beginning of 2012. China lagged behind in terms of new orders – according to Clarkson’s figures, in January, each of the countries received orders for nine newbuildings, but the tonnage for South Korea was more than six times as high as for China (1.7 million DWT versus 260,000 DWT).
That continued the development that China’s transport minister Li Shenglin had already forecast last year: “The market was flooded with ships which were financed by national banks. And the buyers are now interested in the larger vessels from the Korean companies; that is a headache for China’s shipyards.”
China is still in front in terms of the order book – as of February 1, China had 2,386 ships in the order book, with 149.1 million DWT, still well ahead of South Korea (1,103 ships, 106.6 million DWT) and Japan (684 ships, 52.7 million DWT).
The current global order book stands at 5,623 ships, 2,253 fewer than at the end of 2010. Last year a total of 2,599 ships were delivered, and new orders were received for 1,253 ships – 365 of these were bulkers and 226 container ships. Deliveries in 2011 were also dominated by bulkers at 1,173 ships, followed by tankers (362) and container ships (190).