South Korean shipbuilders are overwhelming Chinese rivals in new ship orders this year.
Since the turn of this year orders for high-value ships such as ultra-large containerships, drillships and LNG carriers are leading the world newbuilding market and South Korean shipyards are winning most of the orders.
But amid slump in bulkder and tanker market, Chinese yards are facing reduced new orders compared to last year.
According to recent data from Clarksons, South Korea won new ship orders for 1.48m cgt (37 ships) in May, occupying 65.3% of the global total of 2.27m cgt while Chinese secured just 0.3m cgt (17 ships), taking 13.2% of the total.
During January-May, South Korean yards won 6.48m cgt (171 ships) while Chinese inked 3.4m cgt (178 ships). South Korean took 54% of the global orders for 12m cgt in the period while Chinese catched 28%.
By order value, South Korean builders signed $4.16bn orders in May while Chinese penned $450m. During the first five months South Korean secured $23.4bn while Chinese won $5.9bn.
South Korean yards are expected to continue to win high-value ship orders going forward while Chinese are forecast to win less new orders for a while, and South Korea is highly likely to get back to the No. 1 spot by new orders this year.