Korean shipyards climb back to the peak in global order book in October

South Korea bounced back to No.1 position in global ship orders in October on the surging global trade volume.

Korean shipyards brought home the largest 1.12 million compensated gross tonnages (CGT), or 52 percent of the total 2.13 million CGTs in new global ship orders last month, according to Clarkson Research Services on Tuesday. China ranked second with 810,000 CGTs in new orders.

Global ship orders from January to October jumped 162 percent from the same period last year to 40.99 million CGTs, reaching the highest level since 2013.

China secured the largest cumulative orders of 19.93 million CGTs over the past 10 months, followed by Korea 15.79 million CGT and Japan 3.71 million CGTs.

Orders for large-sized container vessels increased sharply due to the rapid growth in international trade. Orders for very large container ships – 120,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) or larger container ships – soared 804 percent on year from Jan-Oct to 11.09 CGTs. Orders for liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers grew 99 percent to 4.76 million CGTs and bulk carriers 213 percent to 2.34 million CGTs.

Global order backlog reached 89.03 million CGTs in October, up 280,000 CGTs from the previous month.

Order backlog for Korean shipyards amounted to 28.82 million CGTs, hitting a five year-high after rising at the fastest pace from the previous month. China came first with 36.33 million CGTs in order backlog and Japan came third with 9.44 million CGTs.

Clarkson Newbuilding Price Index, which shows price changes in newly built ships, stood at 152.28 in October, up 3 points from September. It surpassed 150 for the first time in 12 years since June 2009. It has gained more than 20 percent from January this year.

Prices of all types of ships rose last month. The price of 174,000-cubic-meter LNG vessels grew to $203 million, after surpassing the $200 million level for the first time in five years in September. The price of 22,000-24,000 TEU container ships reached $183.5 million, very large crude carrier (VLCC) $108 million, S-max oil tankers $74.5 million and A-max crude tankers $59 million.
Source: Pulse