China's shipbuilding industry saw new ship orders plummet by 67.5% in the first six months of 2012 and as much as 90% of the country's shipyards turned out to have secured no new order since the turn of the year, reported South China Morning Post on Tuesday.
Chinese yards inked new orders for 182 ships in the first half of the year, down by 67.5% from 561-ship orders signed in the same period of last year.
Even the largest private-sector shipbuilding company Rongsheng Heavy Industries failed to win a single newbuilding order except two barge type rigs booked in May.
Back in 2007 Chinese won newbuilding orders for 2,036 ships of 32.54m cgt but in the first half of this year the figure collapsed to a mere 3m cgt.