In March, newbuilding order intakes in global shipbuilding industry are said to have shown an increasing move both month-on-month and year-on-year.
According to data from Shenyin & Wanguo Securities of China, global shipbuilding industry won orders of a combined 7.16m dwt in March 2013, up by 16% and 79%, respectively, compared to the previous month and the same time period last year.
In the first quarter this year, global newbuilding orders were reported to be a combined 20.58m dwt, which represents a 44% increase against 14.32m dwt of the same period last year. However, it was calculated to be still less than 26.33m dwt of the first quarter of 2011.
Particularly, order intakes of the three commercial ship segments, bulker, tanker and containership, were seen on the rise compared to the same period last year and each order was a combined of 4.104m dwt, 1.116m dwt and 88,000 teu, respectively, up by 111%, 14% and 1903% from the first quarter of 2012.
Shenyin & Wanguo prospected that global order intakes in full 2013 will be around 50m dwt as expected before.
It is sure that the market will see a better condition than what the previous year showed, however it does not seem to reach the level of 2011, which made the estimated order intakes unchanged.
Meanwhile, newbuilding price indexes of three commercial vessels all displayed slight declines when compared to the same time period in 2012, according to statistical data of Shenyin & Wanguo.
As for newbuilding price index of bulker in March, it was 120p, down by 4.8% year-on-year, however, reported a 0.8% increase month-on-month. In terms of the index of tanker, it was reported to be 144p, down by 4.6% from March 2012, but remained still month-on-month, while containership’s newbuilding price index was 72p, showing a 15.3% decrease against the same month in 2012 and stayed still month-on-month like tanker.
Moreover, newbuilding price of capesize bulker in March 2013 started to show an upward move, as having increased by $500,000 from February to $46.5m, while that of VLCC declined by $1m to $90.5m. As for newbuilding prices of aframax and panamax tankers, they remained at the same prices, $47m and $25.75m, each, compared to the previous month.    
Chinese shipbuilding industry won contracts of a combined 2.9m dwt in March 2013, showing increases of 13.8% and 88.2%, each, month-on-month and year-on-year, while Korean contracted overall 2.29m dwt of orders, up by 17.4% month-on-month and 110.7% year-on-year. As for Japanese shipbuilding industry, orders of 1.65m dwt were contracted, up by 30.6% month-on-month and 108.4% year-on-year.