SEOUL Asian shipbuilders are struggling to stay afloat as orders decline to the lowest level in two decades. Analysts see no end to the pain in sight.
New orders received by builders in Japan declined almost 90% in the first 10 months of 2016 from a year earlier, according to data from BIMCO, a global shipping industry data provider. South Korean competitors similarly saw an 84.2% drop in orders by compensated gross tonnage, an industry measure of shipbuilding output that takes into account ship size and work difficulty. Their Chinese rivals counted a 58.5% decline.
