Last month has seen a month-on-month increase by 11.2% in new orders to 1.23m cgt, however, compared to May 2011, new order plummeted by 62% last month, which represents a current newbuilding market still under depression.
According to Clarkson Research, in the first four months this year, only a total of 5.2m cgt were invested, the lowest record in Clarkson statistics.
Chinese shipyards contracted 0.66m cgt in May with lower pricing, accounting for 53.5% of overall contract, while South Korean and Japanese shipbuilders won 0.32m cgt and 0.2m cgt, taking 26.2% and 16.7%, respectively.
However, due to low-price orders, China booked less orders than Korea in value terms, even after contracting two times larger tonnage. During the same month, Korea bagged the largest order totalling $1.05bn, followed by China ($967m) and Japan ($371m).
Also, during January-May, Korea won a cumulative orders of 2.84m cgt, ahead of China with a combined of 2.08m cgt.
Chinese shipyards are placed in a situation that they need to lower the price in order to secure new orders, as being fallen behind of Korea and Japan in technology or ship quality, amid some warning China's reckless pricing competition.
CSSC-affiliated Guangzhou Shipyard International (GSI)'s General Manager Han Guang-De calls for resistance to price wars between yards to protect margins.
And he pointed out that as Korean shipyards currently offering lower price, China's global price competitiveness is getting weaker.
Last month, Korea contracted for commercial ship, despite a weak market, particularly MR tanker, LNG/LPG carrier, etc., as well as specialized vessels like drillship, livestock carrier, etc.
During the same month, China still won orders for mainly bulkers, while small boxships, aframax tankers, and VLGCs were also contracted, while Japan inked for VLCCs and small-and-medium size bulkers.
Meanwhile, in case of semi-submersible drilling rig segment, which is not included in Clarkson data, South Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, Hyundai Heavy Industries and Hyundai Samho HI contracted for two units, one and one each. And UAE's Lamprell and Singapore's Sembcorp contracted one jack-up rig each.
China's Jiangsu Rongsheng Heavy Industries has first made a move into an offshore rig sector, by having contracted one semi-submersible barge rig and one tender rig from Singaporean owner PrimePoint in May.