Japanese export ship orders dry up

Indicative of the weak state of international shipbuilding demand, the Japanese Ship Exporters Association has released statistics showing that in October Japanese yards took in export orders for just 11 ships totaling 571,810 gt.

That compares with 43 export ships totaling 2.2 million gt the previous month.

In October 2007, Japanese yards recorded orders for 64 export ships totaling more than 3.5 million gt.

This year, as of the end of October, total Japanese ship export orders total 416 ships and 18.6 million gt. That is still ahead of the January through October 2007 total of 411 ships, but down slightly on the total export tonnage of 19 million gt booked in the first ten months of last year.