The world’s largest asset management company BlackRock has become a significant shareholder in Samsung Heavy Industries, acquiring a 5.01% stake in the South Korean shipbuilder in a move that signals strong institutional confidence in the longevity of the current newbuilding supercycle. Samsung Heavy has secured $3.1bn in orders so far this year across 16 vessels, representing 22% of its annual target of $13.9bn. That pace of order intake, combined with a global orderbook that remains heavily backloaded at major Korean and Chinese yards, suggests newbuilding demand is showing few signs of the cyclical reversal that has historically punished late-stage investors in shipbuilding equities. For much of the 2020s shipyards have enjoyed a very significant boom in orders, in line with sky-high freight rates for many sectors. By way of an example of today’s yard supercycle, 20% of all ships on order today will deliver only after more than three years from now. At the beginning of 2021, only around 5% of the global orderbook had been due for delivery beyond the following three years. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1_95_0_1_2'); }); TagsSouth Korea United States