Japanese newbuild export orders rise again

The January rise followed a 71.5 percent increase in December, but the figures for both months compare with extremely low year-earlier levels. In January, Japanese shipbuilders received orders for four bulk carriers, three oil tankers and two general cargo vessels. The nine ships total 196,000 compensated gross tons.

In the first 10 months of fiscal 2009 starting in April, Japanese export ship orders plummeted 63.3 percent from a year earlier to 5,028,900 grt. The nation’s shipbuilders received orders for 94 export ships during the April-January period, none of them containerships.

Japan started providing financial support recently to shore up slumping vessel exports, through the government-affiliated Japan Bank for International Cooperation, one of the world’s largest international financial institutions.