South Korean shipyards’ order book in the first half was fattest in 13 years by commanding 44 percent of new vessel orders or 61 percent of high-value carriers.

According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy on Sunday, Korean shipbuilders dominated a combined 10.88 million compensated gross tonnages (CGT) in new orders for the January-June period, or 44 percent of demand of 24.52 million CGT.

The volume was more than eight time larger than a year ago and biggest in 13 years.

Korean shipbuilders struck big in high-value segment, winning 7.23 million CGT out of the entire 11.89 million CGT. They added 81 units of 12,000 TEU or larger container vessels in 4.67 million CGT (or 51 percent of all), 27 VLCCs in 1.16 million CGT (87 percent), and all 16 LNG carriers in 1.4 million CGT.

Orders for LNG, LPG and cleaner-fuel ships soared 806 percent on year to 4.8 million CGT, or 70.1 percent in the segment.

Rigorous commerce activity on stronger-than-expected global recovery and strengthening shipping rates played favorably for Korean builders who were fast in migration to cleaner and cost-efficient energy.

The Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI), widely cited metric on market freight quotations, soared to 3,905 last month, more than quadrupled from 911 in December 2018.

As of the end of last year, Korean shipyards’ order backlog reached 26.73 million CGT, up 34 percent from a year-ago period and overwhelming the workload for the past three years.

By Baek Sang-kyung and Lee Ha-yeon

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]