Recently, some Korean media lamented in reports that South Korea's shipbuilding industry will give up its world's No. 1 position to China for three consecutive years in 2023.However, although South Korea's shipbuilding orders fell by more than 37% in 2023, the proportion of high-value ships such as liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers has increased.
According to Clarkson Research, a British shipbuilding and shipping analysis organization, the total global shipbuilding orders in 2023 will be 41.49 million CGT (corrected gross tons), a decrease of 18.7% from 2022.
Among them, South Korea's order volume was 10.01 million CGT, a decrease of 37.6% compared with the same period last year. Its global market share is 24%.China ranks first in the world with orders of 24.46 million CGT, accounting for 59% of the total.
As of 2020, South Korea's shipbuilding order volume has ranked first in the world for three consecutive years, but since 2021, it has been occupied by China for three consecutive years.
Korean media analyzed that this was mainly due to the increase in shipbuilding orders from Chinese customers. In addition, the Korean shipbuilding industry has a backlog of shipbuilding projects of approximately 4 years. Last year, the performance of South Korea's three major shipbuilding companies declined, with only HD Korea Shipbuilding and Offshore Engineering (KSOE) completing its 2023 order target.
However, the quality of orders to South Korea has improved. For example, South Korea's LNG carrier market share has reached 80%, and LNG carriers are high value-added ships. Last year, the global LNG ship order volume was 5.54 million CGT, of which South Korea's order volume was 4.41 million CGT, and the Chinese shipbuilding industry accounted for most of the rest.
It is reported that the Korean shipbuilding industry is actively seeking orders for environmentally friendly ships such as methanol-powered container ships, liquefied carbon dioxide carriers, and ammonia carriers.