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After falling for 14 months in a row, Japanese
export ship orders rose for the second
consecutive month in January on a year-on-year
basis, surging a robust 50.5 percent to 471,900
gross tons, according to figures released by the
Japan Ship Exporters' Association. Japan is one
of the world's top shipbuilding nations along
with South Korea and China. Japan's export ship
orders suddenly plunged in October 2008 due to
the deep global economic downturn.
The January rise followed a whopping 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
gross tons. The nation's shipbuilders received
orders for 94 export ships during the
April-January period, none of them
containerships.
Japan, the world's second-largest economy,
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.
Source: Journal of Commerce
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