As this year’s newbuilding prices and new orders have shown an obvious indication of recovery in three years, prospect for shipbuilding industry in the upcoming year is also suggested to be bright.

Analyst Lee Yoon-Sang at Samsung Securities of Korea said that newbuilding price index had rebounded to 132 after hitting the bottom point of 126 and global new orders for commercial ship had increased by 100% from a year ago, leading to confidence in recovery of market condition.

Moreover, next year’s global orderbook is anticipated to grow in two years, reflected by decreasing delivery and increasing demolition despite new orders rising.

Also, the analyst expected that price competition would be eased with ship values to be raised for securing profitability as China had started restructuring through kicking out poor shipbuilders while Korean yards stood on orderbook for the next two years at least.

Lee anticipated that domestic builders’ market power would be further reinforced as newbuilding prices were expected to be growing in LNG carrier and offshore sectors as well, where Korean Big3 builders had established a unique position and shipowners had increasingly preferred fuel-efficiency vessels.