Chinese shipbuilders double production in first five months

Chinese shipbuilders nearly doubled their manufacturing production between January and May of 2010, leading to a 94% annual increase in output to 23.65 million deadweight tons, state media reported. According to figures from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), approximately 81% of the vessels were produced for export, with Chinese shipbuilders currently representing 40.4% of the global market by output. Orders in 2010 have already outpaced those in 2009 – 19.64 million deadweight tons of new orders arrived in the first five months, representing a 156% increase over the same period the previous year.