Shipbuilding orders for Japanese yards plunge by 47% in August

Japanese dockyards earned a mere 686,400 tons in shipbuilding orders for 17 new vessels, down by 47.4% compared to a year ago, revealed the Japanese Vessel Exports Association.

LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) carriers and tankers, including chemical carriers, were responsible for the largest portion vessel orders, 8 ships or 336,700 tons in total.

In the mean time, Japanese shipyards are building 487 vessels of 24,770,000 tons as of August, a slight increase from 437 vessels or 23,040,000 tons as of the end of this March.