South Korean shipowners have placed orders for the construction of thirteen vessels at Chinese shipyards so far in 2017, with only seven ships ordered at domestic yards, Yonhap News Agency cited industry sources as saying.

In total, twenty ships have been ordered by South Korean shipping companies until now.

When compared to 2016, the country's shipowners ordered 26 vessels, 22 of which were placed at compatriot yards.

Contrastingly, China's shipping firms decided to award all of their orders to domestic shipbuilders. In addition, shipyards in Japan secured orders to construct four out of six ships for compatriot shipping firms.

However, compared to last year's weak ordering streak, South Korea's top three shipbuilders, Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) and Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI), seem to have made a major comeback to the shipbuilding scene as owners rushed to avail of attractive VLCC prices.

Yonhap reported earlier that South Korean shipyards surpassed their Chinese rivals in April. Referring to Clarkson Research Institute's data, Yonhap informed that Korean yards won orders worth a combined 340,000 compensated gross tons (CGTs) to build twelve ships during the month. On the other hand, yards in China received in April orders estimated at 260,000 CGTs to construct 13 vessels.