S. Korea's share of global shipbuilding orders falls below 10% in June

South Korea captured less than 10 percent of the global shipbuilding order market in June.

According to Clarkson Research, a British shipping and shipbuilding market research firm, global new ship orders in June totaled 5.25 million compensated gross tons (CGT) across 200 vessels — up 3 percent from the same period last year (5.09 million CGT). By country, China secured 4.45 million CGT (171 vessels, 85 percent), while South Korea's share was limited to 500,000 CGT (13 vessels, 9 percent).

For the first half of this year, global new ship orders reached 42.95 million CGT (1,481 vessels), a 66 percent increase from 25.9 million CGT (1,101 vessels) in the same period last year. Of that total, South Korea accounted for 7.97 million CGT (195 vessels, 19 percent) and China for 31 million CGT (1,131 vessels, 72 percent).

The global order backlog as of the end of June stood at 206.59 million CGT, up 2.14 million CGT from the previous month. South Korea held 38.81 million CGT (19 percent) and China 134.03 million CGT (65 percent). Month on month, South Korea's backlog grew by 1.59 million CGT and China's by 770,000 CGT.

The Clarkson Newbuilding Price Index at the end of June stood at 185.15, up 0.14 points from May (185.01) and 33 percent higher than the June 2021 level of 138.79. By vessel type, newbuilding prices were $248.5 million for LNG carriers, $130.5 million for very large crude carriers (VLCCs) and $261.5 million for ultra-large container ships (22,000–24,000 TEU).