S.Korea reigned supreme on global shipbuilding market in February

South Korea’s shipbuilding industry has blown away that of China in order volume.

Clarkson Research, a British shipbuilding and shipping market research agency, on Tuesday said global ship orders last month by volume reached 2.1 million compensated gross tonnage (CGT) spanning 58 ships, down 25% from the same month last year.

South Korea won orders worth 1.5 million CGT spanning 34 vessels to rank No. 1 worldwide with a 74% market share.

China, which greatly outperformed South Korea in January, received orders worth 170,000 CGT spanning nine ships for only 8% of the global market.

Late last month, the global order backlog was 100 million CGT, down 530,000 CGT from the end of January.

The backlog by country was 49 million CGT or 45% for China and 38.6 million or 35% for South Korea.

South Korea's order backlog increased 21% and China’s 11% year on year.

Meanwhile, the Clarkson Newbuilding Price Index was 163.69, up 8.96 points from the same month last year.

The price by vessel type was $250 million for a liquefied natural gas carrier with a capacity of 174,000 cubic meters or more, $120 million for a very large crude carrier and $215 million for a very large container ship.

Write to Seo-Woo Jang at suwu@hankyung.com