South Korean shipyards maintained lead in the global order book for the second straight month in June by bringing home half of new shipping orders in the month as demand for gas carriers remains relatively stable amid reduced ship demand from slowdown in global commerce.

According to British shipbuilding and marine industry tracker Clarkson Research Services on Tuesday, Korean names bagged combined six new ship orders in 340,000 compensated gross tonnages (CGT) in June, or 52 percent of the total 18 orders in 660,000 CGT placed in the world last month.

China won the second-largest amount of 240,000 CGT or seven orders, and Japan third-largest 90,000 CGT or five in June.

Based on the cumulative new order volume in the first six months, China topped with the largest share of 42 percent, or 176 vessels in 4.32 million CGT. Korea came second with 3.17 million CGT (31 percent), followed by Italy with 1.11 million CGT and Japan with 1.10 million CGT.

Global ship orders in June plunged 41 percent from 1.12 million CGT a month ago. Cumulative orders in the first six months also dropped 42 percent on year to 10.26 million CGT, sharply reversing from a 51 percent jump a year earlier.

New orders for LNG carriers, mainstay vessels of Korean shipbuilders, reached 2.06 million CGT, down 8 percent from the previous year. New orders for VLCCs plummeted by 72 percent, container vessels (12,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit or larger) by 50 percent, and bulk carriers by 56 percent.

As of the end of June, global ship order backlog amounted to 78.89 million CGT, down 2 percent on month. By country, China had the largest backlog of 28.7 million CGT (36 percent), followed by Korea with 20.62 million CGT (26 percent) and Japan with 14.05 million CGT (18 percent). Korea showed a rise of 10 percent, whereas China and Japan saw a decline of 8 percent and 26 percent, respectively.

By Kang Gye-man and Lee Ha-yeon

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