South Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. (DSME) has maintained its position as the world's largest shipbuilder by order backlog for nine straight months.
According to the data compiled by global researcher Clarkson Research Services on Aug. 19, the DSME has kept its #1 single shipyard position for nine months in a row.
The Okpo shipyard of the DSME had the largest order backlog totaling 8.57 million compensated gross tons (CGTs) as of the end of July. It has retained its #1 ranking after beating the Ulsan shipyard of Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. (HHI) in Nov. last year.
The DSME was followed by its major local rivals, the Geoje shipyard of Samsung Heavy Industries Co. and the Ulsan shipyard of Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., which have comparable figures of 5.22 million CGTs and 5.06 million CGTs, respectively. Also, Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries came in fourth with 4.04 CGTs, while Hyundai Mipo Dockyard ranked fifth with 2.62 CGTs.
By shipbuilding group, however, HHI has maintained the #1 spot, while the DSME took second place.
Meanwhile, the DSME announced on Aug. 19 that it has cancelled a contract for the construction of a drillship. The order worth 703.4 billion won (US$594.84 million) was placed by a U.S. owner in 2013.
The DSME said that it planned to complete the delivery by the end of this year, but it has recently decided to terminate the contract due to the failure of the ship owner to meet interim payment deadlines. The amount of the contract is equivalent to 4.2 percent of the recent sales of the company.
The DSME will keep the advance payment and the right to sell the drillship, which is under construction. Also, the company is expected to claim other losses from the ship owner through litigation.