Korea narrowly reclaimed the World No.1 spot of newbuilding order (in cgt terms) in 2011 and 2012 after having yielded the post to China from 2007 to 2010 however it looks to hand over the position again to China this year.

In this year to November, accumulated global newbuilding orders came at 42.23m cgt, nearly twice the figure, 21.86m cgt, recorded from last year.  

Clarkson Research said that Korean shipyards recorded 13.92m cgt of new orders while China posted 16.79m cgt, surpassing Korea by 20% during the period.

Till October this year, global new order intakes reached 35.60m cgt and additional 6.63m cgt newbuilding orders were placed during November.

During the period from January to October, Korean shipbuilding industry recorded 11.70m cgt of new orders while China won 14.50m cgt. In addition, during November, Korea inked 2.22m cgt orders and China penned 2.29m cgt.

It looks virtually impossible for Korea to overtake China with only one month left in 2013.

Meanwhile, Korea and China were awarded 7.70m cgt and 7.40m cgt orders, respectively in 2012, and both countries have been showing recovery trend with doubled new orders sealed year-to-date.