Korea nets 382 ships

Korean shipbuilders have clinched 382 ships amounting to 13.19 million CGT for the first nine months this year, up 234.40% compared with the same period last year. Korea Shipbuilders? Association KSA) said that the figure is the highest ever for newbuilding orders, surpassing the previous record of 10.4 million CGT in 2000.

The association believes that the increase is caused by the booming shipping market, strict regulation on old ships, increase in ship size and ship owners placing early orders to beat the anticipated price increases for newbuildings. The association predicts that Korean shipbuilders will in future be more selective in what orders they accept in order to achieve higher profitability.

The breakdown by ship type reveals that tankers, including product carrier and chemical tankers, account for 197 vessels of 5.3 million CGT while container ships comprise of 161 vessels of 6.7 million CGT. Other types comprise of four bulk carriers of 91,000 CGT, five LNG carriers of 366,000CGT and 15 miscellaneous craft of 716,000CGT.

KSA said that new orders for tankers and box ships increased dramatically while contracts for bulk carriers decreased. LNG carrier new orders remained more or less the same although the recent upsurge in the third quarter would indicate that Korean shipbuilders are likely to bag more LNG carrier orders during the last quarter of 2003.