Local shipbuilders fell behind their Chinese and Japanese rivals in new orders won last month, due mainly to falls in orders for offshore plants and mega cargo ships, industry data showed Thursday.

South Korean shipyards obtained new orders totaling 294,167 compensated gross tons in April, down 84.8 percent compared with the same period of last year, according to the data by global market researcher Clarkson Research Services.

The number accounts for 13 percent of the total global ship orders. Chinese shipbuilders won orders totaling 1.10 million CGTs in April, accounting for 48.8 percent of the global total, and Japanese shipbuilders clinched orders amounting to 604,664 CGTs, taking up 26.7 percent of the total.

CGT, an indicator of the amount of work needed to build a given ship, is used as a tool to compare inter-country shipbuilding output. It is a generally used measure for the volume of orders received.

April was the second consecutive month that local shipbuilders were overtaken by Chinese competitors. The last time they were outperformed by Japanese rivals on monthly basis was in January last year. (Yonhap)