Tokyo — Japanese shipbuilders received export orders for 20 vessels in December, totaling 1.3 million gross tons, up 154.2% year on year on a gross tons basis, Japan Ship Exporters' Association data released Wednesday showed.
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Register NowA JSEA official attributed the surge to the number of large-sized oil tankers booked in the month.
"We believe those new ordered oil tankers are to meet the new requirements of the International Maritime Organization from January 2020; we hope Japanese shipbuilders continue receiving these kinds of orders and more backlog orders," the JSEA official said.
"Japanese shipbuilders hold about two years of backlog orders; it has to be higher for them to keep their operations stable," he added.
However he said a stronger Japanese yen in January may impact the competitiveness of Japanese shipbuilders. The yen is currently hovering around Yen 108-109 to the $1, up from around Yen 112-113 a month ago.
Backlog orders for vessel exports held by Japanese shipbuilders stood at 25.86 million gross tons across 512 vessels in December, down 5.6% on year but up 2.7% from November on a gross tons basis, according to JSEA data.
Japan's vessel orders received over calendar year 2018 totaled 10.79 million gross tons, up 14.1% on year, the data showed.
Ordinary steel orders booked by Japanese shipbuilders over January-November 2018 totaled 3.33 million mt, up 1.7% year on year, latest Japan Iron & Steel Federation data showed.
-- Yoko Manabe, yoko.manabe@spglobal.com
-- Edited by Wendy Wells, newsdesk@spglobal.com