Orders for ships made a record for the first half of this year.
According to the ‘Shipbuilding Industry Movement of the First Half Year of 2003’ by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy on the 28th, orders for 223 vessels of 7.81 million tons have been made and total order amount sums up to 10.57 billion dollars which is 171.7% more than last years orders.

This year’s first half order exceeds over last year’s annual order of 230 vessels of 7.59 million tons worth 10.4 billion dollars. Orders for the first half of this year greatly exceeds over the last record made in the first half of 2000 of 6.61 million tons by 1.20 million tons.

A representative from the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy commented, “After the submersion accident of an oil tanker in the Spain coast of November, 2002, regulations on superannuated vessels have been reinforced internationally and also economic performance of shipping is seeing progress.”

Especially among the 233 vessels, only one domestic ship is an 818 TEU (1 TEU=20fm is one container) container ship. And also the relative rate of vessels such as superliners and container ships over 7,500 TEU have increased from last year’s 10.5% to 18.5%, increasing export for the first half year of 22.8% which sums up to 61.7 billion dollars. These numerical values bring expectations on achieving or even exceeding this year’s export goal of 10.8 billion dollars.

Source : Byeong-ryul Yu, Hankook Ilbo reporter (July, 28)