Japan’s new ship orders in January jump 62% on year

Source: Mysteel Feb 09, 2021 15:00

Japan’s new vessel orders in January jumped by 62.2% on year to 1.21 million gross tonnes in 31 vessels, according to new data released by the Japan Ship Exporters’ Association (JSEA) on February 9. Though last month’s orders were also 37.4% up on the December result, a JSEA official cautioned that ship plate consumption isn’t likely to increase because the rise was probably only temporary. The Japanese yards are still slowing down their operations, he said.

Last month’s order total marked the first time since March 2019 for the Japanese shipbuilders to win over 1 million gross tonnes of new business in a single month, according to the JSEA data. In March 2019 the order total was 1.38 million gross tonnes. But the January performance was not the beginning of