After falling behind Chinese shipbuilders for three consecutive months (April, May and June), South Korean shipbuilders overtook them in terms of new ship orders in July, taking the top spot. However, in terms of overall market share, Chinese shipbuilders remained in first place.
According to the data released by Clarkson on August 5, the global orders for new ships in July this year amounted to 2.37 million compensated gross tonnages (CGTs) (59 units), based on compensated gross tonnages, down 46% compared with the same period last year, and down 2.47% compared with the previous year. Among them, the South Korean shipbuilders’ new orders were 960,000 CGTs (18 units), ranking first in the world with 40% market share; Chinese shipbuilders’ new orders were 570,000 CGTs (30 units), ranking second in the world with 24% market share.
So far this year, South Korean shipbuilders only 2 times to occupy the position of the top of the list of new ship orders in a single month, the last time is in March this year. In July this year, the average tonnage of new ships of South Korean shipbuilders was 53,000 CGTs, which is 2.8 times more than that of Chinese shipbuilders of 19,000 CGTs. South Korea’s shipbuilding industry attributes this to the implementation of South Korean shipbuilders to high value-added ship-based order selection strategy.
The data shows that the global new ship orders from January to July this year totaled 35.59 million CGTs (1,234 units), an increase of 22% over the same period last year (1,302 units, 29.16 million CGTs). During this period, the order quantity of Chinese Shipbuilders was 22.54 million CGTs (823 units), with a market share of about 63%, an increase of 42% over the same period of last year, ranking first; the order quantity of South Korean Shipbuilders was 8.11 million CGTs (176 units), with a market share of 23%, an increase of 17% over the same period of last year, ranking second.
Taking the end of July as the benchmark, the global hand-held newbuilding orders amounted to 141.65 million CGTs, an increase of 5.34 million CGTs from the previous month. Among them, Chinese shipbuilders’ hand-held orders amounted to 75.52 million CGTs, with a market share of about 53% and an increase of 4.95 million CGTs from the previous year, continuing to hold the first place in the market; South Korean shipbuilders’ hand-held orders amounted to 38.93 million CGTs, with a market share of about 27% and an increase of 0.69 million CGTs from the previous year, coming in at the second place.
It is worth noting that whether the volume of new ship orders on hand from January to July 2024 or the cumulative volume of orders on hand up to now, Chinese shipbuilders have an absolute advantage in terms of market share, respectively 63% and 53%.
At the end of July, the Clarkson Newbuilding Price Index stood at 187.98 points, an increase of 9%, continuing a 44-month upward trend from November 2020 onwards.
In terms of ship types, the newbuilding price of 174,000 m³ class large LNG carriers is $262.5 million; the newbuilding price of Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) is $129 million; and the newbuilding price of ultra-large containerships (22,000 TEU-24,000 TEU) is $272 million.