Japanese shipbuilders have been boosted by rare orders for an ore carrier and a capesize bulker, official figures show.
The two large bulkers helped push the number of orders placed in January to 14 vessels totaling 675,700 gt, according to the Japanese Ship Exporters' Association.
Bulker focus
Last month’s orders were dominated by bulkers, which made up 13 of the ships ordered. The only non-bulker order was a single aframax newbuilding.
In addition to the ore carrier and the capesize bulker, the other orders comprised four panamaxes, three handymaxes, a trio of handysize units and a coal carrier.
While January’s order intake was up 45% year-on-year, it is the weakest in four months following order hauls between October and December 2018 of 850,000 gt and 1.4 million gt.
The order backlog for vessel exports held by Japanese shipbuilders stood at 25.7 million gt across 501 vessels at the end of January, down just 2% year-on-year.
