London: Chinese shipyards are now booked to build more containerships than South Korean builders in number terms although they have some way to go in challenging Korean supremacy in the larger box ship sectors.
According to a recent report from London-based Howe Robinson, which specialises in the container sector, Chinese builders won contracts for nearly 200 containerships of about 500,000 teu in 2006 to be built at 20 different shipyards. They made considerable progress in winning new contracts from foreign owners, the broker's analysts note, with half of the 39 panamax deals signed with overseas companies including three German owners and one Singaporean firm. However, eight contracts for post panamax tonnage signed by the country's yards during the year were all for domestic containership owners.
Meanwhile, South Korean builders still dominate the larger sectors, securing contracts for more than 130 containerships, aggregating 800,000 teu. The country's leading shipyards booked deals for 60 post panamax box ships, according to Howe Robinson statistics. Hyundai led the charge with 35 post panamax orders; Samsung (pictured) won deals for 15; Daewoo signed five; and Hanjin secured four. [08/02/07]
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