Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering and Samsung Heavy Industries are vying fiercely for the second spot in the global shipbuilding market, while Hyundai Heavy Industries has retained the lead for a long while.

According to market research firm Clarkson, Hyundai Heavy Industries recorded an order backlog of 6.824 million CGT in July this year, and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering increased its amount by 678,000 CGT from the previous month to 5.916 million CGT to overtake Samsung Heavy Industries, which posted 5.363 million CGT during the same period.

The heated competition between the second and third rankers started last year, when Daewoo beat Samsung for the first time by a margin of approximately 20,000 CGT (6.059 million vs. 6.038 million). The race is going on this year, too. Samsung outperformed Daewoo in January (6.1 million vs. 5.88 million), but Daewoo outdid Samsung from February to May. Then, Samsung and Daewoo took the second place in June and July, respectively.

Daewoo received a total of 13 orders in July alone, four for very large crude carriers (VLCC) and nine LNG icebreakers. Meanwhile, Samsung obtained nine orders for petroleum carriers, gas carriers, and other orders.

The Korean shipbuilding industry, in the meantime, regained the top spot in terms of monthly order amount in July for the first time since February this year by beating China. Korea’s backlog was 33 vessels with 1.399 million CGT and China’s was 57 vessels with 1.223 million CGT.