July of 2012 saw orders for 75 vessels of a combined 3.3m dwt, which brought the total number of new orders in the first seven months to 577contracts of a cumulative 24.6m dwt (10.7m cgt), representing a 46% year-on-year decrease in deadweight terms.
According to a recent report from Clarkson Research, an estimated $4.2bn was invested in new orders last month, bringing total global new ship investment during January-July to an estimated $35.7bn, down by 39% year-on-year.
Due to depressed newbuilding market, at the end of July, the Clarkson newbuilding price index recorded 128.5 points, declined by 2.1% month-on-month, representing the lowest point since March 2004.
From January to July, Korean shipyards contracted overall 140 vessels of a cumulative 8.9m dwt (4.4m cgt), totalling $15.8bn, down by 50% y-o-y in numerical terms. However, Korea stood strong in high-value segments, accounting for 43% and 90% of global market share in tanker and LNG carrier sectors, respectively.
In July, Hyundai Heavy Industries contracted 10 13,800-teu ultra-large boxships and Hyundai Group's affiliated shipyards booked orders for overall seven car carriers.
China, during the first seven months, inked 210 vessels of a combined 9.6m dwt (3.4m cgt), with an estimated totals of $7.1bn. Bulker took most of orders with 49% shares, while containership saw its global shares diminished to 61%.
Greek owners invested $1.1bn in July alone, down by 51% year-on-year, bringing total investment during the first seven months to $3.9bn. Cumulative investment, from January to July, Norway stayed on top by having invested a total of $7.2bn, followed by the US ($4.2bn) and Brazil ($1.9bn).
Chinese owners, on the other hand, have seen a significant drop in the volume of investment. In the first seven months of the year, China ordered an estimated $1.9bn worth of vessels, a decline of 44%. Particularly, Japanese owners turned out to have invested $2.9bn, 54% more than Chinese counterparts.
Meanwhile, a total of 110 vessels of a cumulative 8.7m dwt entered service during July, bringing the total deliveries during the first seven months to 1,568 vessels of a combined 104.7m dwt (30.6m cgt). A combined 50.3m dwt of capacity hit the water in the second quarter of this year and registered the largest amount of dwt tonnage delivered on quarterly basis.
From January to July, Chinese shipyards delivered overall 43.4m dwt (12.2m cgt), representing 41% of total tonnage delivered and an increase by 8.2% on the same period last year.
Korean shipyards, during the same period, delivered a total of 35.6m dwt (9.8m cgt), up by 6.5% year-on-year.
China took 52% of total bulker deliveries, during the first seven months, in dwt terms, while Korea accounted for 63%, 79% and 53% of deliveries in tanker, boxship and gas carrier segments, each.