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The world’s slumping shipbuilding industry will likely bottom out by 2020, according to a report based on discussions at a recent gathering of Chinese, Korean and Japanese shipyard trade officials.

The September meeting of the Sino-Japan and South Korea Shipbuilders Association Conference in Korea focused on ways to cooperate with the goal of surviving the slump and supporting the business environment in East Asia, according to the report posted on the website of China State Shipbuilding Corp.

For now, though, first-half 2016 production data points to a weak environment in each country.

At China’s shipyards, new vessel orders by weight increased 1.9 percent to 4.2 million tons in the first half. Japanese and Korean yards reported new orders fell to 900,000 tons each during the same period.

China’s shipbuilders completed 5.7 million tons worth of ships between January and June, down 10.2 percent. But yards in Japan and Korean each finished more vessels than in the first half of 2015, rising to 3.7 million tons and 6 million tons, respectively.

Most of the business for Chinese and Japanese shipyards involves bulk carriers, while LNG carriers are leading vessels for Korean yard orders.

The report added that the soft business climate has forced East Asian shipyards to cut jobs and wages in recent years.

http://www.breakbulk.com/east-asian-...h-cooperation/