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Korea's shipbuilding industry last year held on to the top spot in the world in terms of orders, number of vessels delivered and backlog, according to Clarksons, which provides information on the global shipbuilding industry. They have been in the top spot since 2003 in those areas, and last year they even managed to pull ahead of their aggressive Chinese pursuers.
Korean shipbuilders won 17.5 million compensated gross tons in orders last year, accounting for 41.1 percent of total orders worldwide. That was a significant lead over the Chinese, who bagged 14.9 million CGT of orders or 35 percent, and the Japanese with 4.9 million CGT or 11.5 percent. One out of every three vessels produced in the world last year was built by a Korean firm. Their backlog was 67.7 million CGT, worth 35.8 percent of global orders.
China has vowed to overtake Korean shipbuilders by 2015, dumping prices, and narrowed the gap with Korea to just 0.4 percentage points in 2007.
At one point, industry watchers forecast Chinese shipbuilders were poised to overtake their Korean rivals. But last year orders for Chinese firms fell to less than half of the 2007 tally as the global economic crisis struck, widening Korea's lead by 6.1 points.
Korean shipbuilders have a virtual technology monopoly among high value-added vessels. With bold investment in research and development, they are constantly producing innovative solutions. A researcher at the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade says while some small and mid-sized Korean shipbuilders are experiencing cash flow and other problems, the big shipbuilders are steadily increasing their global market share through leading technology.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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