Japanese export ship orders fell in 2009

Japan, along with South Korea and China, received orders for export ships totalling 6,340,591 gross tons in fiscal 2009, down a whopping 56.5 percent from the previous fiscal year. Japanese shipbuilders received orders for 119 export ships in fiscal 2009, the smallest number since fiscal 1992, when they received orders for 77 export ships.

A recovery began toward the end of the fiscal year when Japanese export ship orders rose for the fourth consecutive month in March after falling for 14 months in a row on a year-on-year basis. In March, Japan received orders for export ships totalling 928,021 gross tons, up a robust 69.4 percent from the same month last year.

Japan, the world’s second-largest economy, started providing official financial support recently to shore up slumping vessel exports through the government-affiliated Japan Bank for International Cooperation.