LONDON's Clarksons Research reported on July 6 that the shipbuilding contracts signed last month added up to 4.15 million compensated gross tonnes, or 131 ships, including 1.82 million CGT (40) that went to South Korean shipbuilders, 1.57 million CGT (63) that went to Chinese, and 0.3 million CGT (14) that went to Japanese, reports Business Korea.

(Compensated gross tonnage is an indicator of the amount of work necessary to build a given ship and is calculated by multiplying the tonnage of a ship by a coefficient, determined according to type and size of that particular ship.)

In the first half of this year, the figure jumped 192 per cent year on year to 24.02 million CGT. South Korean shipbuilders boosted their performance from 1.35 million CGT to 10.47 million CGT to narrow their gap with Chinese shipbuilders to 0.12 million CGT. This figure is equivalent to two 15,000 TEU container carriers and the former are likely to catch up with the latter soon.

In the first half, 16 orders were placed for LNG carriers with a capacity of 140,000 cubic metres or more, 51 for oil tankers, 72 for LPG carriers, and 148 for container carriers with a capacity of 12,000 TEU or more and South Korean shipbuilders won 16, 42, 52 and 81, respectively.

In the case of container carriers with a capacity of 12,000 TEU or more, the order placement was 0.59 million CGT (eight ships) in the first half of 2020 but surged to 8.85 million CGT (148) in the first half of this year. 

As for LNG carriers with a capacity of 140,000 cubic metres or more, the figure jumped from 0.26 million CGT (three) to 1.4 million CGT. When it comes to VLCCs, it increased 138 per cent from 0.56 million CGT (13) to 1.33 million CGT (31). It increased 53 per cent from 0.49 million CGT (15) to 0.75 million CGT in the case of capsize bulk carriers.

On the other hand, S-Max oil tanker orders fell from 0.42 million CGT (14) to 0.24 million CGT (eight) and A-Max oil tanker orders fell from 0.56 million CGT (21) to 0.49 million CGT (19).

The worldwide order backlog at the end of June this year is 80.91 million CGT, up two per cent from the previous month. The order backlog of Chinese shipbuilders is 30.41 million CGT (up one per cent) and those of South Korean and Japanese shipbuilders are 26.73 million CGT (up five per cent) and 8.66 million CGT (down one per cent), respectively. 

Year on year, South Korean shipbuilders' order backlog increased 34 per cent, that of Chinese shipbuilders rose eight per cent, and that of Japanese shipbuilders dropped 21 per cent.