Korea top dog again

South Korean shipbuilders enjoyed another bumper year in 2004 by winning the largest amount of orders in the world totalling 17.3 million compensated gross tonnes (CGT) last year. This was well ahead of Japan in second position with 12.2 million CGT according to the London-based research firm Clarkson.

South Korean shipbuilders retained the world’s top spot for the second consecutive year. The 2004 figure represented 36.7% of the world shipbuilding market, but it was down slightly from 17.6 million tonnes in 2003. The European Union was placed third with 8.3 million tonnes, trailed by China with 6.6 million tonnes, according to Clarkson.

At the end of last year, domestic shipbuilders had a combined order backlog of 35.4 million tonnes that will keep them busy for at least three years. It was the first time that the order backlog broke through the 30-million-tonne level. In terms of ship orders, South Korea overtook Japan as the world’s leader in 1999 and retained that status in 2000, but it lost the No 1 spot to Japan in 2001 and 2002.