Page 16: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (February 1999)

World Ship Orderbook Recovery Continues

The total world ship orderbook has continued to recover from the drop seen at the end of the March 1998 quarter. In figures recently published by Lloyd's Register (LR) in its quarterly World

Shipbuilding Statistics, the total world orderbook grew by 2.1 mil- lion gross tonnage (mgt) in the quarter to end-September 1998. It now stands at 57.7 mgt — a rise of nearly four percent against the previous quarter. The orderbook now stands 1.1 mgt higher than at the end of the December 1997 quarter, and shows a 7.2 mgt increase over the same quarter last year. New orders reported in the quarter totaled almost 8.5 mgt, returning to similar levels to those reported in March, June and

September 1997, but still well down on December 1997's impres- sive 11.5 mgt of new orders. This

Delivery schedule of the world orderbook

Orderbook 1998 1999 2000+

No. of ships 2,727 905 1,340 482

GT (millions) 57.7 9.7 28.9 19.1 quarter's 8.3 mgt of new orders are well above the 5.8 mgt reported in

March 1998 and the 6.5 mgt reported in June 1998.

Completions in the quarter remained relatively constant at around 6 mgt. This average has been maintained throughout 1996, 1997 and 1998 to date; although an increase to 6.9 mgt was record- ed in March 1998, this fell back to 5.7 mgt in both June and

September 1998.

Japan and South Korea contin- ue to dominate the market. Japan has pulled slightly ahead of South

Korea with her orderbook now standing at 20.1 mgt, representing almost 35 percent of the total world orderbook. South Korea's total orderbook stands at 18.9 mgt, representing 33 percent of the total world orderbook. Japan's lead over South Korea was helped by securing 10 new orders for crude oil tankers totaling 1.1 mgt, com- pared with South Korea's 0.9 mgt of new orders for the same ship- type. Although South Korea remains the world's largest builder of vessels of this shiptype, her lead over Japan has been steadily erod- ed: at the end of the March 1998 quarter, South Korea was contract- ed to build 54 percent of all crude oil tankers on the world order book, with Japanese builders con- tracted to build 37 percent. By the end of the September 1998 quar- ter, South Korea's share had fallen to 47 per cent and Japan's share had risen to 46 per cent.

The delivery schedule of the cur- rent world ship orderbook shows that some 17 percent is expected to be completed by the end of the year, with a further 50 percent expected to be completed by the end of the century. Around 38 percent of the 28.9 mgt of ships scheduled for completed in 1999 are either crude oil tankers or oil products tankers. Offshore supply and other offshore vessels also have shown significant increases in activity since the end of the

September 1997 quarter, with an increase of around 45 percent in orders in offshore supply ships. In the category other offshore, which includes floating production, stor- age and offloading vessels (FPSOs), there has been an increase of more than 66 percent.

Kvaerner Masa-Yards Inc. - the experienced builder of successful ships

LUXURY CRUISE LINERS value through quality

More than thirty successful cruise vessels in operation on the world-wide cruise market have a very special thing in common. Their birthplace is in Finland at the highly modern shipyards in Helsinki and Turku with their state-of-the-art design and production technology.

The order book of Kvaerner Masa-Yards includes three approx. 140,000 GT Eagle- class cruise liners for Royal Caribbean

Cruise Line, one 28,000 GT cruise ship for Hapag-Lloyd AG, one 84,000 GT cruise liner for Costa Crociere SpA and one 84,000 GT cruise liner for Carnival

Cruise Lines plus two options for Carnival

Cruise Lines.

Kvaerner Masa-Yards

Kvaerner Masa-Yards Inc.

Marketing and sales, Helsinki, P.O.Box 132

FiN-00151 HELSINKI, Finland

Tel. +358-9-1941, Fax +358-9-650 051

Email: [email protected]

Marketing and sales, Turku, P.O.Box 666

FlN-20101 TURKU, Finland

Tel. +358-2-2666 111, Fax +358-2-2666 999

Email: [email protected] www.kvaerner.com

In addition to cruise ships and passenger ferries, Kvaerner Masa-Yards has also expertise in building LNG gas carriers, cable ships, icebreakers and ice-going tonnage and all types of special technology vessels, such as advanced tankers, research vessels and vessels for the offshore oil and gas industry, such as floating oil storage and production vessels.

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Kvaerner Masa-Yards Inc. employs about 4,300 people and is part of the

Shipbuilding group of Kvaerner ASA, which has thirteen newbuilding yards in Finland, Norway, the UK, Germany, the US, Russia and Singapore.

February, 1999 15