According to Yonhap news agency, in October, South Korea regained its first position in global shipbuilding orders, followed from the country’s dominance in the LNG carrier sector.
Namely, the previous month South Korean shipyards, led by Hyundai Heavy Industries, took orders reaching the 1.29 million compensated gross tons (CGTs) for the construction of 17 ships, accounting for 86% of the orders placed around the globe, as a Clarkson research reported.
This is the first time in 2019 that South Korea signed over 1 million CGTs in monthly orders.
South Korea was the leader of shipbuilding orders again in August, 2019, accounting more than 70% of orders placed worldwide, easily surpassing its rivals China and Japan.
In the meantime, China which led the orders in September, only had orders for 150,000 CGTs or eight ships in October.
Overall, during the first ten months of the year, South Korean Shipbuilders secured orders totaling 6.95 million CGTs worth US$15.9 billion, ahead of their Chinese rivals who bagged a total of 6.11 million CGTs in orders worth $13.6 billion.
South korea is dominant in the LNG carrier market, according to industry officials, with the recent announcement that it will convert 140 state-owned vessels to run on environmentally friendly fuels by 2030, in line with their plans on boosting domestic and international environmental regulations.