By Kyunghee Park

(Bloomberg) — The weakening yuan and China’s waning urge for food for uncooked supplies have come round to chunk the nation’s shipbuilders, elevating the percentages that extra shipyards will quickly be shuttered.

About 140 yards on the planet’s second-biggest shipbuilding nation have gone out of enterprise since 2010, and extra are anticipated to shut within the subsequent two years after solely 69 gained orders for vessels final yr, JPMorgan Chase & Co. analysts Sokje Lee and Minsung Lee wrote in a Jan. 6 report. That compares with 126 shipyards that fielded orders in 2014 and 147 in 2013.

Total orders at Chinese shipyards tumbled 59 % within the first 11 months of 2015, in keeping with information launched Dec. 15 by the China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry. Builders have sought authorities assist as extra vessel capability drives down transport charges and prompts clients to cancel contracts. Zhoushan Wuzhou Ship Repairing & Building Co. final month grew to become the primary state-owned shipbuilder to go bankrupt in a decade.

“The chance of orders being canceled at Chinese yards is becoming greater and greater,” stated Park Moo Hyun, an analyst at Hana Daetoo Securities Co. in Seoul. “While a weaker yuan could mean cheaper ship prices for customers, it still won’t be enough to lure back any buyers. Chinese shipbuilders won’t be able to revive even if you try breathing some life into them.”

The Baltic Dry Index, which measures the price of transporting uncooked supplies, dropped 39 % final yr and hit a historic low Dec. 16. Aggravating the state of affairs is Chinese shipyards’ heavy reliance on bulk carriers, that are used to haul commodities from iron ore to coal and grain.

Bulk ships accounted for 41.6 % of Chinese shipyards’ $26.6 billion orderbook as of Dec. 1, in keeping with Clarkson Plc, the world’s largest shipbroker. That compares with a 3.5 % share at South Korean shipyards, which have extra publicity to the tankers and gasoline carriers which are among the many few brilliant spots in a beleaguered transport trade.

Cosco Corp. Singapore Ltd., which is owned by a Chinese father or mother firm and has its shipyards on the mainland, and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Holdings Ltd. noticed some bulk-carrier orders canceled final yr.

©2016 Bloomberg News