BEIJING: Chinese shipbuilders almost doubled production in the first five months of the year with output surging 94 percent year-on-year to 23.65 million deadweight tonnages, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said Thursday.

 
About 81 percent of the vessels built in the January to May period were for export.

Chinese shipbuilders secured 19.64 million deadweight tonnages of new orders in the past five months, up from 1.18 million deadweight tonnages in the same period last year when the global economic downturn hit the industry hard.

By the end of May, Chinese shipbuilders' orders in hand totaled 186.4 million deadweight tonnages, down 0.9 percent from the end of 2009.

With the rebound in overseas demand this year, Chinese shipbuilders have a roughly 40.4 percent share of the global market in terms of output.