CHINESE shipyards won 47 per cent of all new shipbuilding contracts in 2014. That is one of many facts contained in Paris-based shipbroker BRS Group's newly published Annual Shipping Review and possibly a reason why the publication is available in Chinese for the first time this year, as well as in English and French.

Worryingly, BRS says that in total some 130 million deadweight tonnes of newbuilding orders was placed during the year. That, it notes, was almost in line with volumes seen in the boom years. Taken together with the fact that ship deliveries in 2014 declined for the third consecutive year, to 88 million deadweight tonnes, the picture is of healthy decline in orders being sabotaged by a return to massive over-ordering.

Perhaps last year's orders reflect a surge in confidence that occurred about year ago. If that is the case, then the world has already changed again since then. To be fair, a year or eighteen months ago it was possible to put a good case forward for building very fuel efficient ships in the face of the then high oil price. That has all changed now, but the ships are still being built.