Greek shipowners lead global chart of shipyard orders

Greek shipowners raised the number of contracts with shipyards around the world by a remarkable 75.5 percent on an annual basis last year to become the number 1 nationality in order value, according to the global shipbuilding review issued on Thursday by Clarksons Research.

The Greeks signed contracts worth an estimated $9.5 billion in 2018, up from $5.4 billion in 2017, in the face of a 6.6 percent global decline in contracts with shipyards.

They therefore climbed from fourth to first place in the global chart of shipyard orders, leaving behind the Americans (at $7.4 billion, with a 51.4 percent annual decline), the Japanese (at $7.3 billion) and the Chinese ($5.4 billion).

This has seen the share of Greek contracts with shipyards jump from 7.8 percent in 2017 to 14.7 percent last year.