Due to its escalating standard of living and hence, increasingly higher labour costs, it was thought to be only a matter of time before Japan was forced to concede its position as a shipbuilding nation to its immediate neighbours with their significantly lower man hour and material costs. Yet this is far from true. Despite a sharp decline in tonnage delivered following the collapse of the large crude carrier market around 1977, Japan has met the competition head on and has continued to increase the gross tonnage delivered year by year since. A comparison of tonnage delivered by the three main competitors in the Far East over recent years underlines this fact: More recent figures tend to underline this trend. For example, from April to December 2003, Japanese yards received export new-building orders for 465 vessels totalling 21 871 744gt.
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