SEOUL, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's shipbuilding orders kept the No.1 spot for two straight years to 2019, taking over one-third of combined global ship orders, the trade ministry said Monday citing data from Clarkson Research.

Photo: VCG

New vessel orders, won by local shipbuilders, totaled 9.43 million compensated gross tonnage (CGT) in 2019, making up 37.3 percent of 25.29 CGT for global ship orders placed in the year, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

The country maintained its dominance position for the second consecutive year, the ministry noted.

It was trailed by China with 8.55 million CGT of shipbuilding orders, Japan with 3.28 million CGT of orders and Italy with 1.14 million CGT respectively.

The dominance was attributed to big-ticket orders, such as large-scale LNG carriers, Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) and large-size container ships.

Domestic shipbuilders booked 94 percent of the total global large-size LNG carrier orders, 58 percent of combined VLCC, and 61 percent of combined large-scale container ships each last year.

In terms of value, South Korea's shipbuilding orders amounted to 22.3 billion U.S. dollars in 2019.

China's orders were valued at 20.3 billion dollars, followed by Italy with 7.5 billion dollars and Japan with 6.1 billion dollars each.