China set to overhaul South Korea this year in shipbuilding race

Seoul: South Korean shipbuilders are likely to be outpaced this year by Chinese competitors for the first time. ?According to Clarkson Research Services, a London-based market researcher, the total completed shipbuilding volume of Korean shipyards stood at 13.36m compensated gross tons in the first 10 months of the year, compared to Chinese firms' 14.8m cgt. ?The market share of Korea and China for that category was 31.8 percent and 35.3 percent, respectively.?
Korean shipbuilders also fell behind their Chinese counterparts in the number of new orders they won during the 10-month period. ?Korean firms won a combined 9.81m cgt of orders, which accounted for 37.9 percent of the global total, while their Chinese rivals clinched 11.7m cgt, which took up 45.3 percent of the world's total.?
Korean shipyards' order backlogs came to 45.39m cgt as of November 1, far lower than that of 51.67m cgt for Chinese shipbuilders, according to Clarkson. [29/11/10]