Due to depressed newbuilding demand and lowering orderbook, newbuilding price index has now fallen for 14 months in a row.
The Clarkson newbuilding price index stood at 127.1 points at the end of August, down 1.4 points from the previous month and down by 8.5% on the beginning of 2012. 
Meanwhile, in the report from Clarkson, global newbuilding orderbook, at the end of August, stood at 96.36m cgt (281.6dwt and 4,795 vessels), which represents a month-on-month decline of 1% in numerical terms.
In August, contracts for 71 vessels of 2.9m dwt were booked, totalling around $9bn, the largest amount ordered since June 2011. This is the result of the big investment in offshore facilities in ship shape, reaching $7.3bn. Brazil's two greenfield shipyards were placed an order for a total of nine drillships from Petrobras.
Total global investment during the first eight months of the year has reached $49.6bn, down by 26%, and a total of 28.2m dwt (677 vessels) have been contracted, down by 47% when annualized.
54 of the 71 vessels ordered in August were placed at shipyards in Korea, China and Japan. Particularly, Chinese shipyards booked 56% of all bulker and 53% of all tanker contracts, as well as all six boxships ordered last month. Overall, 31 of the 46 containerships ordered year-to-date are ordered at Chinese yards. As ordering has been focused on smaller feeder ships this year, Chinese were able to have received pleasing results in this segment.
In August, a single contract was placed at European shipyards, as a platform supply vessel was ordered at Havyard Leirvik in Norway. European shipyards have now won contracts for 75 vessels in the year to date, including 51 offshore supply vessels, three cruise ships and 10 Ro-Pax ferries, etc.
Overall 94 vessels of a cumulative 5.8m dwt were delivered last month, declined from 20.2m dwt in June and 11.2m dwt in July of this year. IMO PSPC (Performance Standard for Protective Coatings) application and summer holidays, etc., seem to have affected delivery.
During January-August period, a total of 1,743 vessels of a combined 113.6m dwt have entered service, up by 3.5% year-on-year. An average monthly total of 14.2m dwt has been delivered between January and August of the year, while 2012 is expected to see 169m dwt delivered in the world.
During the first eight months of the year, shipyards in Asia delivered overall 1,595 vessels of a combined 111.9m dwt, accounting for 98.5% in dwt terms and 91.5% of numerical terms.