Japanese Ship Orders Grow 30 Percent in November

Japanese export ship orders rose for the 12th consecutive month in November on a year-on-year basis, growing 29.9 percent to 525,009 gross tons, according to figures released Thursday by the Japan Ship Exporters' Association.

The pace of growth, no longer compared with the depths of the global economic downturn, was significantly slower than the 88.5 percent jump in October or the 111.3 percent spurt in August.

In November, Japanese shipbuilders received orders for 21 bulk carriers and one oil tanker.

"The worst is over (for the Japanese shipbuilding industry)," Takao Motoyama, chairman of the Shipbuilders' Association of Japan, said at a recent press conference.

In the first 11 months of 2010, Japanese export ship orders totaled 9,917,131 gross tons, up 89.3 percent from the same period last year, but only a little more than half the 19,150,950 gross tonnage registered during the same 11-month period of 2008. Japanese shipbuilders received orders for 234 export vessels -- 214 bulk carriers, 10 general cargo vessels and 10 oil tankers -- between January and November.

-- Contact Hisane Masaki at yiu45535@nifty.com.