Korea retains top in global ship order book in August for 4 straight months

South Korea retained No. 1 position in global ship orders for the fourth month in a row in August after the country’s shipbuilders continued to win a majority of liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier and very large container orders.

Korean shipyards won the largest 57 percent or 780,000 compensated gross tonnages (CGT) of the total 1.37 million CGTs in new global ship orders in August, beating runner-up China with 27 percent, or 370,000 CGTs, according to British shipbuilding and marine industry tracker Clarkson Research Services on Tuesday.

This was the fourth month in a row for Korea succeeding in defending its top position in global ship orders.

Cumulative global ship orders from January to August surged 165 percent from the same period of last year to 32.39 million CGTs, and Korea accounted for 42 percent, or 13.66 million CGTs, of the total, jumping about five-fold on year and further narrowing the gap with China with 14.53 million CGTs.

The stellar performance of Korean shipyards was mainly driven by their dominant leadership in the LNG carrier and very large container carrier markets.

Korean shipbuilders have together bagged 37 LNG carriers, or 97 percent of total global LNG orders, so far this year. Once Russia and Qatar announce their mega LNG carrier orders later this year, Korea is expected to overtake China in terms of this year’s total global ship order book.

After orders of very large container ships – 120,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) or larger container ships – surged 1,400 percent over the same period, Korea with the upper hand in the market is expected to see further rise in orders.

Order backlog of Korean shipyards reached 28.33 million CGTs, or 34 percent of global order backlog of 84.68 million CGTs, as of the end of August, trailing behind China with 32.59 million CGTs (39 percent) but beating Japan with 9.56 million CGT (11 percent).

Clarkson Newbuilding Price Index, which shows price changes in newly built ships, came at 145.8 in August, up 2 points from the previous month. It surpassed 140 for the first time in July since September 2011.

Prices for all types of vessels increase last month. The price of very large crude carriers (VLCC) came at $135 million, up from $102 million in July, while container ship prices jumped from $138.5 million to $141 million over the same period. LNG carrier prices are poised to top $200 million after hitting $198 million in August vs. $196 million in July.

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