In December last year, South Korean shipbuilders’ backlog dipped below 20 million CGT for the first time since July 2003.

South Korean shipbuilders overtook their Japanese counterparts by a margin of 21,000 CGT in the last month of 1999. At this time, however, the latter caught up with the former in 17 years. At the end of last year, the gap was approximately 140,000 CGT. An average LNG carrier is equivalent to 80,000 CGT.

“It seems that Japanese shipbuilders succeeded in keeping their backlog from falling below 20 million CGT by means of successive orders placed by Japanese shipping companies,” said an industry source, adding, “This is in stark contrast to the situation witnessed during the boom period in August 2008, when South Korean shipbuilders used to record a backlog of more than 70 million CGT to exceed that of Japanese shipbuilders by a margin of no less than 31.6 million CGT.”