Chapter　4　 Shipbuilding

(Status of Construction and Order Entry)

　 　 The volume of newly-built vessels in the fiscal 1974 was 18,620 thousand gross tons, up 13% from the previous fiscal year. By company-size the 15 main shipbuilders completed 15,030 thousand gross tons, up 8% from the previous fiscal year, and medium and small size companies 3,590 thousand gross tons, up 39%. By customer, domestic vessels dipped 10% whereas export vessels rose by 20% boosting the share of export vessels to 82% of the tnire ships built (Table 2-(4)-1).
　 　 The orders received in the fiscal 1974 for new construction of ships finished with 9,350 thousand gross tons, diving deep from the level of the previous fiscal year (down 72%) to plunge below 10,000 gross tons for the first time in 6 years since 1968. The doldrum was brought about by the worldwise stagnancy in the marine transport business, with the hardest blow coming from the drastic reduction of new orders for export tankers by as much as 88% from the previous fiscal year driven by the surplus tanker tonnage over the world. For instance, there was no order for tankers above 400 thousand deadweight tons in 1974 whereas we received orders for 33 ships of the same category (6,570 thousand gross tons) in the previous fiscal year. Furthermore, the share of the deffered payment ships among export vessels jumped to 30% in gross tonnage (16% in the previous fiscal year) on the Progressive impetus (Table 2 -(4)-2).