The surge in fleet size – up almost 4 million gt from last year – has been driven largely by 2007’s healthy newbuilding market and includes a wide range of vessels including bulk carriers and tankers (to be built according to IACS Common Structural Rules), containerships, VLOCs and PCTCs. “We’ve been focusing on international growth and the Chinese market has been a particular target. We’ve expanded our resources in China to provide a wide-range of technical support to the local shipyards and opened two additional Chinese branch offices in Nanjing and Ningbo. As a result, of the 143 new KR-classed vessels being build outside Korea, 69 are to be built in China.
