Japan Ship Exporter's Association (JSEA) announced on Jan. 19th that its 22 shipbuilder members received newbuilding orders of 2.53m CGT (5.7m gt) in 2009, dropping by 71.3% over a year earlier.

This is the worst record ever since CGT-based statistics began in 1997.

It seems that decreasing quantities of seaborne transportation under global economic crisis waned the passion for newbuilding.

New ship orders received in Japan in 2009 totalled 111 vessels: six general cargo ships, 81 bulkers, 22 tankers and two other type ships.

Most of the fresh orders were based on existing negotiations which took place before the global economic crisis, while there were little newbuilding inquiries last year.

Each Japanese shipbuilding company, however, has comparatively ample orderbooks thanks to booming orders for new ships in the past years to 2008 to handle the increasing demand for resources transportation.

Japanese shipbuilders' combined order backlog at the end of Dec. 2009 totalled 1,138 vessels of 55.9m gt (24.6m CGT).

Assuming 16m gt is an annual newbuilding output for Japanese shipbuilders, the orderbook will keep the yards busy for the next 3.5 years.

The order backlog, however, continued decreasing after hitting the peak of 70m gt in Sep. 2008 when Lehman Shock hit the world economy.

Backlogs breakdown by delivery dates are as follow; 130 vessels of 6m gt for delivery in 2009 (fiscal year), 343 vessels of 16m gt in 2010, 323 vessels of 15.9m gt in 2011, 227 vessels of 11.6m gt in 2012, and 115vessels of 612,000 gt in 2013.

Customs record of exported newbuildings in 2009 numbered 337 vessels of 15.9m gt, down by 0.2% compared to 2008.

Japanese shipyards' operating ratio compared to their capacity is likely to be kept high in the near future backed by the huge order backlog, and the annual production in 2010 and 2011 is expected to remain around 16m gt respectively.

Japanese shipbuilding players forecast that the fdemand or newbuildings would recover along with economy.

New orders in Dec. 2009 stood at 189,852 CGT, up by 49.1% compared to same month of previous year.

It is certain that competition for new orders will get more intense among nations reinforcing shipbuilding capacity including Korea and China.

Hence, Japanese shipbuilding companies will focus on better fuel-efficiency and environment friendly technologies to get more new orders.

Source: Asiasis

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