South Korean shipbuilders won the largest amount of new orders for the second straight month in May, according to data from a global shipping information company Monday.

According to the UK-based Clarkson Research Service, Korean shipbuilding companies in May secured orders to build a total of 21 units worth a combined 790,000 compensated gross tons, a measurement to gauge the amount of work that goes into constructing a vessel.

New orders placed with Korean shipbuilders last month accounted for almost half of the total orders worldwide in the same period, which amounted to 1.66 million CGT, or 50 units. 

In May, China landed new orders worth a combined 320,000 CGT to build 17 ships, while Japan won three deals worth 80,000 CGT.

With the orders clinched recently, Korean shipbuilders also regained the top spot in terms of accumulated CGT for the first five months of this year, ahead of former No. 1 China, the data showed.

As of May, Korean shipbuilders had received accumulated orders of 2 million CGT, followed by China with 1.84 million CGT and Italy with 740,000 CGT.

During the first five months of the year, the total amount of new orders around the world stood at 6.53 million CGT to build 238 units.

South Korean shipyards’ total order backlog also rose to 17.49 million CGT as of May, slightly up from April’s 17.34 million CGT. It was the first bounce back since May 2015.

China had the largest order backlog at 25.76 million CGT, while Japan came in third with a total of 17.17 million CGT.

Total global backlogged orders were 76.19 million CGT as of the end of May.

By Shim Woo-hyun (ws@heraldcorp.com)