Japan Newbuilding Exports Hit 24-Year Low

VESSEL export orders for Japan in December dropped to their lowest level since 1992 as the protracted shipping industry downturn continued to weigh on shipbuilders, new figures reveal.

News ID: 71745

Date: 21 January 2017 - 15:00

According to MANA, Shipyards in the nation secured eight export orders for December totalling 484,800 gross tonnes, or 185,332 compensated gross tonnes, which is about 87% lower than December 2015's 63 export orders amounting to about 2.3m gt, or 1.2m cgt, according to figures from the Japan Ship Exporters' Association.

In the 12 months of 2016, Japanese shipbuilders won 75 newbuilding orders for export totalling about 3.7m gt, a JSEA official told Lloyd's List.

This compares with about 83 export orders amounting to 3.2m gt in 1992.

In December last year, shipbuilders in Japan secured export orders for two handymax bulk carriers, three panamax bulk carriers, one ore carrier, one very large crude carrier and one chemical tanker.

This is a sharp contrast to the export orders clinched in December 2015 for two general cargo vessels, 23 handysize bulk carriers, five handymax bulk carriers, nine panamax bulk carriers, one post-panamax bulk carrier, one chip carrier, one cement carrier, one very large crude carrier, four aframax tankers, one liquefied natural gas carrier, 11 product tankers and four chemical tankers.

Of the export orders clinched in December, 1.6% are expected to be delivered over 2017, 66.8% are scheduled to be delivered in 2018 and 31.6% are expected to be delivered in 2019.

In terms of payment, shipowners will pay the Japanese yards fully in cash with 1.6% in Japanese yen and 98.4% in other foreign currencies, with 9.1% of transactions to be paid via trading companies.

For December 2016, Japanese shipbuilders delivered a total of four export vessels to owners, amounting to 103,043 gt, or 56,545 cgt.

Japan's total export orderbook as of end-December stood at 597 vessels totalling 30.7m gt, or 14.7m cgt.

The delivery timeline provided by JSEA showed that Japanese shipbuilders delivered 103 vessels over 2016, and expect to deliver 225 vessels in 2017, 173 ships in 2018, 84 vessels in 2019 and 12 ships over 2020.