China shipbuilders 10-month new orders plunge 62%

From January to October 2015, Chinese shipyards received newbuilding orders with tonnage totalling 20.38m dwt, down 62.1% compared to the same period of last year, Cansi figures showed.

In the first 10 months, the shipbuilders completed a total vessel tonnage of 32.87m dwt, representing an increase of 15.4% compared to the previous corresponding period.

As at 30 October 2015, the shipyards sat on an orderbook of 132.01m dwt, down 14% year-on-year and a decline of 11.6% compared to the end of 2014.

Cansi further monitors 54 leading yards to reveal that they took up 91.5%, or 18.65m dwt, of the country’s share of newbuilding orders in the first 10 months, a figure that was also down by a sharp 62.9% year-on-year. As at end-October 2015, the 54 leading yards recorded an order backlog of 129.96m dwt, down 14% compared to the year-ago period.

The association also keeps track of 88 main Chinese yards to show that their combined completed newbuilding tonnage was valued at RMB345bn ($54.1bn) in the first 10 months, inching up 4.5% compared to the same period of last year. Shipbuilding accounted for RMB165bn of the total, while equipment and ship repair took up RMB28bn and RMB10.7bn respectively.

From January to October 2015, the 88 main shipyards achieved a total revenue of RMB244bn, an improvement of just 1.7% over the year-ago period. Profit, however, declined by 16.3% to RMB3.6bn due primarily to lower newbuilding prices and higher costs of production.