Despite the historically low level of newbuilding orders seen in 2015, and a continued weak ordering streak in 2016, the South Korea’s three largest shipbuilders, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, Hyundai Heavy Industries, and Samsung Heavy Industries, still hold the largest orderbooks, data from Clarkson Research shows.
Namely, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering ranked first with an orderbook of 118 ships by the end of the first quarter of 2016, according to Yonhap News Agency.
The shipbuilder is followed by Hyundai Heavy Industries, which has orders for 95 vessels, while Samsung Heavy Industries is ranked third with an orderbook of 81 ships.
From the beginning of 2016, only 77 new vessel orders have been reported, Clarkson Research said.
Contracting slowed down in 2015 with 70.2 million gross tons contracted and newbuild demand has been extremely limited in 2016 so far with only 1.6 million gross tons reported ordered.
However, one major shipowning country did see ordering volumes increase in 2015. Japanese owners signed a reported 14.1 million gross tons of orders compared to an average 12.8 million gross tons contracted between 2005 and 2014.
Chinese owners saw a relatively limited 11% decline in ordering last year as it reached with 11 million gross tons compared to the 2005-14 average of 12.3 million gross tons.
The volume of contracts placed by South Korean and Singaporean owners declined by 30% and 45%, respectively, in 2015 compared to the average 3.3 million gross tons and 1.7 million gross tons contracted from 2005 to 2014, according to Clarkson Research.
World Maritime News Staff