China's new ship orders fall 38% on year during Jan-Nov

Chinese shipbuilders concluded new vessel orders totaling 39.6 million deadweight tons (DWT) over January-November, down by a substantial 37.8% on year, among which 89.5% of total new orders were for exports, according to the latest release by China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry (CANSI) on Wednesday morning.

For November alone, China's shipyards won new orders equivalent to 2.2 million DWT, which slumped by 55.6% on month, the CANSI statistics found.

Meanwhile, Chinese shipbuilders saw their order backlog gain 7.5% on year to 103.6 million DWT by the end of November. Among total orders that shipbuilders are nursing, 89.2% are for exports, the CANSI data showed.

During the past 11 months, Chinese shipbuilders completed building vessels totaling 33.9 million DWT, slipping 5.5% on year, among which 83.7% were for exports. And in November, the tonnage completed approximated 3 million DWT, lower by 1.3% on month.

The CANSI data also showed that China's top 10 shipbuilding enterprises accounted for 67% of total completed vessels nationwide over the January-November period.

The shipbuilders in East China's Jiangsu, Shanghai, Shandong, Zhejiang, Northeast China's Liaoning and South China's Guangdong contributed to 92.2% of completed vessels.

The total value of Chinese ships exported over January-November added up to $19.1 billion, down 3.9% on year. Among the total, exports of bulk carriers, oil tankers and container ships retained dominant roles, CANSI noted.

In terms of vessel types, bulk carriers remained the largest segment in both completed vessels and new orders during the first 11 months, with their share standing at 54.6% and 42.3% of the two totals respectively.

And oil tankers accounted for 22.7% of completed ships, while container ships took up 36% of new ship orders, according to the association.

Over January-November, Chinese shipbuilders saw their total new orders, order backlog and completed vessels account for 53.1%, 48.5% and 45.5% respectively of the world's total, the CANSI data showed.

Written by Rong Zhang, zhangronga@mysteel.com

Note: This article has been written in accordance with an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.