China’s shipyards saw orders fall by 68.3% to 15.1 million dwt between January and August compared with the same period of 2014, the China National Association of Shipbuilding Industry (CANSI) said.
The orderbook fell 12.1% year-on-year (y/y) to 135.1 million dwt at the end of August, or down 9.5% from the level at the end of 2014.
The plunge started at the end of 2014 as buyers cut back spending on new ships, resulting in an annual decline in orders of 14.2%. The reluctance to order has continued since then.
During the first eight months in 2015, completed tonnage at Chinese yards grew 14.6% y/y to 25.3 million dwt.
In terms of exports, new orders dropped 71.1% y/y to 12.9 million dwt. Nonetheless, this accounted for 85.8% of overall orders placed at Chinese yards.
A survey by CANSI reported that 88 Chinese shipbuilding and associated companies saw operating revenues rise by 4.9% to CNY189.0 billion (USD3 billion), although gross profits were down 14.2% to CNY2.9 billion. The total value of their output rose by 4.3% to CNY275 billion.
This post was sourced from IHS Maritime 360: View the original article here.