Chinese shipyards are keeping a healthy lead against all-comers in the newbuilding race this year.
UK shipbroker Clarksons lists 105 ships ordered in June, plus 14 already in July.
Chinese shipbuilders racked up new deals totalling 2.2m cgt last month, or 80% of the worldwide total of 2.76m cgt.
South Korean companies came a distant second, adding 380,000 cgt — 14% of the total.
The figures may be skewed towards China after South Korea had earlier packed its orderbooks for the next three years.
During June, Chinese yards won orders to construct 71 ships.
Notable deals included six more methanol-fuelled container ships for AP Moller-Maersk and three new combination carriers for Norway’s Klaveness Combination Carriers (KCC), both at Jiangsu New Yangzijiang.
CMA CGM picked Yangzi Xinfu for 10 new 24,000-teu container giants, while X-Press Feeders signed a deal for six post-panamax boxships at Huangpu Wenchong and Norden added six ultramax bulkers at Dalian Cosco.
South Korean yards won 10 newbuilding orders last month, among them Nissen Kaiun’s four MR tankers at Hyundai Mipo Dockyard.
The global order backlog reached 114.51m cgt at the end of June, up 70,000 cgt from a month earlier.
South Korea’s contract backlog stood at 38.8m cgt (34% of the world total) and China’s amounted to 53.15m cgt (46%).
Clarkson’s newbuilding price index rose to 170.91 points in June, up 9.38 points from a year earlier, showing how costs keep increasing for owners.
