The worst-ever order drought is continuing for more than one year and South Korea’s major shipbuilders saw their order backlogs plummet last year.

According to Clarkson Research data, Hyundai Heavy Industries (Ulsan headquarters)’ orderbook stood at 211 ships of 8.42m cgt as of early January this year, down 34.8% (cgt terms) from 342 ships of 12.92m cgt a year earlier.

Meanwhile, HHI Gunsan Shipyard’s order backlog showed no change at 29 ships of 1.01m cgt. It started to build vessels in earnest from last year.

Samsung Heavy Industries’ order backlog also decreased 19.6% in the last year, to 8.38m cgt (181 ships) as of early Jan. from 10.42m cgt (226 ships) a year ago.

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, which closed out 2009 with new orders spree, also saw its backlog decrease 17.6% from 9.98m cgt (206 ships) at early Jan. 2009 to 8.22m cgt (180 ships) at early last month.

As for STX Offshore & Shipbuilding, its orderbook decreased at a rather slower rate of 11.3% from 5.28m cgt to 4.68m cgt in the same time frame due to some order intakes and ship type changes.

In contrast, HHI sister companies Hyundai Mipo Dockyard and Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries have secured almost zero orders last year, with the former’s orderbook falling 26.6% from 5.66m cgt to 4.15m cgt in the same period while the latter’s backlog shrinking 16.9% from 4.89m cgt to 4.06m cgt.

Amidst a dearth of new orders, the decrease in Korean major shipbuilders’ order backlogs have been accelerated as they built vessels at almost full throttle last year with expansion of facilities and improvement of building processes.

Most industry pundits expect the situation will not change in the near future with full-scale recovery out of sight yet.

Accordingly, the yards are downshifting their operation, accepting shipowerns’ requests for delivery delays and reducing night works and holiday works in a bid to adjust building schedule.

Source: Asiasis

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