Newbuilding price index hit the highest point since the turn of this year, swelling expectations on recovery.
According to the latest monthly report released by Clarkson Research Services, newbuilding price index rose to 142.1 point as of May end. 
The index stood at 142 in January but edged down to 141.7 in February and further inched down to 141.2 in March and April.
But last month it rose by 0.9 thanks to high value ship orders surging recently.
Meanwhile, global newbuilding orderbook fell below 7,000 ships for the first time since July 2006. It is now at 6,914 ships of 431.9m dwt, plummeting 40.7% from 11,661 ships recorded in August end 2008.
By shipyards, Samsung Heavy Industries topped the backlog list with 9.051m cgt followed by Hyundai Heavy Industries with 7.882m cgt, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering with 7.555m cgt, STX with 4.266m cgt, Hyundai Mipo with 3.625m cgt and Hyundai Samho with 2.922m cgt. They ranked 1st to 6th places in the global orderbook list.
Sungdong Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering ranked 8th with 2.473m cgt.
Meanwhile, new ship orders totalled 70 units worth $5.7bn in May in the world, down from 116 ship orders in April.
South Korean shipbuilders won 37 ship orders while Chinese secured 17.
During January-May period, global newbuilding investment hit $39.6bn for 447 ships of 26.9m dwt.
South Korean yards won $23.4bn orders for 171 ships of 13.3m dwt while Chinese inked $5.9bn orders for 178 ships of 10.5m dwt.
Last month 139 newbuildings of 8.8m dwt were delivered worldwide making the total of deliveries during the first five months to 977 ships of 63.1m dwt.
South Korean built 215 ships of 21.8m dwt while Chinese rolled out 426 ships of 24.6m dwt.