Shipbuilders still cresting the wave

Korea’s shipbuilders continued to lead the global market in the first half of the year despite a large drop in overseas orders caused by sluggish economic conditions, the government said yesterday.

In the January-June period, the world’s total orders for new ships plunged 58 percent from the same period a year earlier to 8.77 million compensated gross tons (CGTs), a drop largely caused by “years of oversupply and the European financial woes,” the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said in a press release.

Korea reaped orders for 3.31 million CGTs during the cited period. The figure represents less than half of the 8.92 million CGTs the country acquired during the same period last year, but is still the single-largest share globally at 37.7 percent of the total for this year.

Korea was closely followed by China, the world’s second-largest shipbuilding nation, whose global market share rose slightly from 32.1 percent in 2011 to 34.5 percent in the first half. But the gap between Korea and China widened when measured in the value of their orders, the ministry said, as Korea’s 3.31 million CGT worth of ships are valued at $14 billion while China’s orders, totaling 3.03 million CGTs, are worth only $5.9 billion. Yonhap