The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) announced on July 6 that South Korea’s shipbuilding industry achieved 1st place in terms of shipbuilding orders for the first half of 2022, winning 45.5 percent (9.79 million CGT) out of a total of 21.53 million CGT, the entire volume of shipbuilding orders worldwide for that period.
In so doing, Korea has reclaimed top spot for H1 after previously claiminig it in 2018. When excluding delayed demand effect of 2021, H1 2022 results are the country’s best first half performance since 2011 (10.36 million CGT).
Korea won 62 percent of total global orders in the first half for high value-added ships, which amounts to 6.92 million CGT out of 11.14 million CGT worldwide.
Moreover, as LNG demand is rising amid Qatar’s LNG carrier bids and Russia-Ukraine war, large-scale LNG carrier bid openings have noticeably increased. During H1 2022, Korea won 63 large-scale LNG carrier bids, equivalent to 71 percent (5.44 million CGT, $13.9 billion) of the total global bids.
Surging freight cost kept fueling demand for large container ships, and Korea won 26 ships, equivalent to 43 percent (1.48 million CGT, $13.9 billion) of world total.
Korea continued strong with respect to eco-friendly ships as well, winning 58 percent (7.98 million CGT out of world total 13.72 million CGT).
By fuel type, LNG-fueled vessels were most numerous in number (115 ships), followed by methanol-fueled vessels (4 ships), then LPG-fueled vessels (1 ship).
Backlog of orders reach 35.08 million CGT as of June 2022, which is 28 percent higher than the total of previous year’s first half, and three major domestic shipbuilders (Hyundai Heavy, Samsung Heavy and Daewoo Shipbuilding) already are almost filled to the brim with their order targets for 2025-2026.
In terms of order backlog, Korea’s shipbuilders dominated the global ranking from 1st to 4th (In order, Samsung Heavy, Hyundai Heavy and Daewoo Shipbuilding, Hyundai Samho Heavy).
As demand for eco-friendly vessels is forecast to rise further in step with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) imposing environment protection regulations, as well as Qatar’s LNG carrier bid openings slated for second half of 2022, the stream of orders is expected to continue worldwide.
The Ministry will continue to support Korea’s shipbuilding industry build competitiveness in future products, such as autonomous ships, eco-friendly ships and Smart K-yard, so that Korean shipyards can adapt to paradigm shifts like “green” and “smart.”
Source: https://english.motie.go.kr/en/pc/pressreleases/bbs/bbsView.do?bbs_cd_n=2&bbs_seq_n=1012
