Mar. 4 – China’s shipbuilding tonnage jumped 30 percent to 18.93 million tons in 2007, the country’s top economic planning agency said Saturday.

China, the world’s third-largest shipbuilder after Korea and Japan, accounted for 23 percent of the world’s market share, an increase of four percent over 2006.

A total of 14.9 million tons of ships in tonnage were exported to 151 countries and regions, according to the National Development and Reform Commission. That number represented an increase of 25.6 percent. Export values rose 51.1 percent to US$12.24 billion.

According to Xinhua, the country’s new shipbuilding orders in tonnage soared 132 percent to 98.45 million tons last year. The figure accounted for 42 percent of the world’s total, up 12 percentage points from a year earlier.

The new amount raised the total orders in tonnage the country held to 158.89 million tons, 33 percent of the world’s figure. The market share was nine percentage points higher than in 2006.

During the year, China’s two largest State-owned shipbuilding companies, China State Shipbuilding Corp and China Shipbuilding Industry Corp, built 6.55 million tons and 4.24 million tons of ships in tonnage, respectively.