South Korea's shipbuilding industry continues leading newbuilding market in July. It already pushed aside China to win back the first place thanks to orders of high-value ships during H1, 2011.
Clarkson Research Services reported Korea to pen orders for 18 ships or 925,039 cgt in July alone, outdistancing China with 28 vessels or 366,030 cgt.
In terms of cgt, Korea has been ahead of China in new order for six consecutive months since February. Korea recorded $1.75bn in July, whilst China won $433m.
Also, Korea scored cumulative orders of about 10.21m cgt with 251 ships during Jan-July period, however, China ended up with 56% of Korean record, 294 vessels amounting 5.72m cgt. On the basis of order value, Korea overwhelmed China's $9.57bn, reaching $35.24bn.
Meanwhile, orderbook-gap between Korea and China has been gradually narrowed. Korea is chasing China's record of 50.67m cgt, with 43.94m cgt, at the beginning of August.
While downsizing trend is shown in worldwide backlog, only Korea has increased four months in a row since April.
Industry experts predict Korea will hold uptrend also in the second half of 2011 thanks to consistent rush in order for high-value ships.