China ranked first in the global ranking in shipbuilding orders during 2021, surpassing South Korea.
Although South Korea has extended significant effort to remain No.1, its shipping companies finally had to accept the fact that they were surpassed by their Chinese counterparts.
According to data released on Sunday by Clarkson, a British shipbuilding and shipping industry analyst, the global order volume of new ships in 2021 was 45.73 million compensated gross tons (CGTs), of which South Korea received 17.35 million CGTs, accounting for 38 percent, second only to China’s 22.8 million CGTs.
By the end of November 2021, China’s in hand ship orders reached 96.39 million deadweight tons (DWTs), up 35.9 percent year-on-year, according to statistics from the China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry.
Analysts attributed the position shift to huge demand for container ships, the orders of which were mostly won by China last year.
South Korean media reported that South Korea has focused on high value-added orders such as liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers.
In September, the average cost of each ship was $170 million for South Korean firms and $60 million for Chinese firms. While the volume of new orders is smaller than that of China, the “gold content” of orders received in South Korea is higher, media reported.
South Korea currently accounts for 91 percent of global orders for LNG carriers, compared with 9 percent for China.
