K-Chosun Maintains Global Order Book Lead in February... Widens Gap with China

Market Share 56%... Widening the Gap with China

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] The Korean shipbuilding industry maintained its global order volume leadership by securing 56% of the world's ship orders in February this year. The market share gap with second-place China widened from 8 percentage points in January to 16 percentage points.

According to Clarkson Research, a shipbuilding and shipping market analysis firm, out of the global ship orders of 2.82 million CGT (92 vessels) in February, Korea secured 1.56 million CGT (43 vessels). This was followed by China with 1.12 million CGT (43 vessels, 40%) and Japan with 60,000 CGT (2 vessels, 2%).

Korea secured all 12 medium-to-large-sized oil tankers ordered in February, including 7 VLCCs and 5 A-Max class vessels, and expanded its order volume centered on large vessels, securing 13 out of 17 large container ships of 12,000 TEU or more.

As of February this year, the cumulative global order volume was 4.82 million CGT, with Korea at 2.5 million CGT (64 vessels, 52%), China at 1.9 million CGT (85 vessels, 40%), and Japan at 320,000 CGT (14 vessels, 7%).

The ship orders from January to February this year were lower than in 2019 (5.35 million CGT) but increased compared to 2020 (2.63 million CGT), which was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the end of February, the global order backlog recorded 71.06 million CGT, an increase of 780,000 CGT (1%) compared to the end of January. By country, China (660,000 CGT) and Korea (650,000 CGT) increased, while Japan (370,000 CGT ↓) decreased. Compared to the same period last year, Japan (4.46 million CGT ↓) and China (2.56 million CGT ↓) saw significant decreases, whereas Korea (600,000 CGT ↑) showed an increase.

The order backlog by country was investigated as China with 25.7 million CGT (36%), followed by Korea with 22.47 million CGT (32%), and Japan with 7.97 million CGT (11%).

Meanwhile, the Clarkson Newbuilding Price Index for February recorded 128 points, a slight increase of 1 point from the previous month.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.