Written by admin on December 25, 2011 – 11:59 am
Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., the world’s second-largest shipbuilder, expects new orders to drop 23 percent next year as shipping lines struggle with an oversupply of vessels and falling rates.
New contracts worth $11 billion may be signed in 2012, a decline from $14.3 billion of orders received this year, Seoul- based Daewoo Shipbuilding said in an e-mailed statement today. Demand for offshore products, such as drill ships, may make up about 70 percent of the orders next year, it said.
Orders for new vessels may slow as falling rates from excessive capacity have caused shipping lines, including China Cosco Holdings Co. and Neptune Orient Lines Ltd., to report losses this year. To offset that, South Korean shipbuilders are focusing more on offshore units, whose demand may rise next year as oil reserves at existing fields run out.
