Chinese shipyards’ new orders are expected to drop at least 58% year on year (y/y) from 60 million dwt in 2014 to 20-25 million dwt in 2015, according to China National Association of Shipbuilding Industry (CANSI).
The significant decline in new orders would be due to the persistent overcapacity and conflicts between supply and demand in the international shipping market, CANSI said in a report.
CANSI predicted that the orderbook at Chinese yards will also slide to 130 million dwt at the end of December 2015.
Also, for the first six months in 2015, the top 10 yards in China grabbed 75.4% of all new orders placed in China, up nearly 20 percentage points from the full year of 2014. The new orders slumped 72.6% y/y to 11.19 million dwt during the same period.
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The new orders for sea-going vessels totalled 4.13 million compensated gross tonnage (cgt) during the same period, down 66.5% y/y from 2014.
The orderbook of the Chinese shipbuilders fell 9.2% y/y to 138.07 million dwt at the end of June. The orderbook of sea-going vessels totalled 43.30 million cgt at the end of the June, of which 95% were exports.
The plunge in new orders came after Chinese shipbuilders ended 2014 with a 14.2% y/y fall in awarded orders, as buyers cut back on spending on new ships since late 2014.
Also, the completed tonnage at the Chinese yards grew 6.3% y/y to 18.53 million dwt during the same period. Among the total completed tonnage, sea-going vessels amounted to 6.37 million cgt.
This post was sourced from IHS Maritime 360: View the original article here.