Chinese Ship Orders Down 96%YoY in 5 Months

BEIJING, June 25 -- According to data from MIIT on Jun 22nd indicates China’s ship industry is still sitting in the downgrade amid the sluggish market in the world.

    China won 1.18 million DWT new ship orders in the first five months, a 96%YoY decline from the correspondent period of last year which contained the 0.19 million DWT orders signed in May though the state completed 12.16 million DWT of ships at the same period up by 61%.

    According to the statistics, the orders possessed in China continued sliding during January to May and fell to 192.28 million DWT till end May down by 6% from the beginning of this year. Meanwhile, the growth in ship industrial gross value created by medium and large shipbuilders kept falling, details available in the following table:

    (Gross value in CNY billion)

    Besides, the growth in ship exports remained in descending too in January to May details given in the following:

    (Gross value in CNY billion)

    An industry expert noted that although it’s worsening, the huge amount of orders will be helpful for the industry to survive the crisis.

    Mr Gao Xiaochun a senior analyst of China Securities Co Ltd pointed out the number of China owned ship orders still overran that of Korea at the end of May posting the first position in the world.

    Global ship market remains weak. As per statistics, there were 86 ships of 5.07 million DWT delivered in May down by 31.19%YoY or 49.55%MoM hitting the record low possibly as a result of the postpone in delivery asked by ship owners. In addition, global ship prices are on the way of recovering. Mr Gao said. “At present new ship index of Clarkson stands at 155 the level equal to the start point of the past bullish period.”

    Mr Zhu Rujing a consultant from China Ship Marketing Research Center expected that the price index might drop again to 130 or below by the end of this year, the same with levels in 2004. He thought this turn of recession would go worse like the crisis attacked 1970s, thus, the shipping market wouldn’t come back earlier until the industry sped up the breaking of old ships and canceled large amount of ship orders.

    (Source: Shanghai Securities News)