Ji-wan Nam, Gounee Yang

Global Economic News

CHINA and Japan, which compete with South Korea in the global shipbuilding market, have recently placed orders for ships made by South Korean shipbuilders.

According to U.K. shipbuilding and shipping market analysis firm Clarksons Research, South Korea won a total of 562,833 CGTs (11 ships) from Japanese shipping companies between January and September this year. CGT, which stands for compensated gross ton, is a unit of measurement intended to provide a common yardstick to reflect the relative output of merchant shipbuilding activity in a region.

Japan’s orders include five LNG carriers, four LPG carriers and two tankers. LNG carriers are reportedly ordered by Japan’s largest shipping company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines to Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering.

Samsung Heavy Industries also won late last month orders from Russian shipping company Sovcomflot and Japan’s NYK to build four LNG carriers.

According to Clarkson Research’s data, Chinese shipping companies recently have also placed orders for 10 container ships on South Korean companies. Last year, there was no such order from China to South Korea.