In the January-August period this year, the aggregate shipbuilding output in China amounted to 24.1 million dead weight tons (dwt), down 7.1 percent year on year, 2.3 percentage points slower than the decline recorded in the first seven months, as announced by the China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry (CANSI). The situation in the industry has improved a little in August, but the fundamentals are still not very good.
In the given period, China’s new ship orders amounted to 15.01 million dwt, decreasing by 4.5 percent year on year, 0.3 percentage points slower than the decreasing pace recorded in the January-July period. As of the end of August, ship orders on the books of Chinese shipbuilding enterprises totaled 72.57 million dwt, down 8.2 percent year on year, 1.7 percentage points higher from the decrease rate recorded as of the end of July.
In the January-August period this year, the aggregate shipbuilding output for export orders in China accounted for 92.2 percent of the total output.
Based on the monitored data of 75 major shipbuilding enterprises, in the first eight months of the current year the Chinese shipbuilding enterprises in question registered an operating revenue of RMB 169 billion ($25 billion), down 2.3 percent year on year, and a gross loss of RMB 1.16 billion ($0.17 billion), down 47 percent year on year.
In the first eight months this year, the aggregate shipbuilding output in China accounted for 39.6 percent of the total shipbuilding output in the global market, keeping its leading position in the world, followed by South Korea and Japan with 29.4 percent and 27.7 percent.