New shipping orders in China decreased 44 per cent year-on-year in the first 11 months of 2008, compared with a fall of 37 per cent worldwide, according to a report by shipping research company Clarkson Research Studies. Over this period, China won shipbuilding orders with a dead weight of 54.26m tons. The other two major shipbuilding nations are South Korea, which recorded 65.97m tons, and Japan, which registered 17.92m tons.
The sharp decrease in China was attributed to the depressed state of the shipping industry worldwide and the types of vessels the nation specialises in building. Chinese ship manufacturing companies excel at producing bulk freighters but demand for this type has fallen significantly in the last year.