New orders received by China's shipbuilders fell sharply in the first half of the year, according to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

New orders fell 50.3 percent over a year earlier to 10.74 million deadweight tonnage. China's shipbuilders completed 32.2 million DWT in the first half, up 4.2 percent.

At the end of June, China's shipbuilders' order book was 125.87 DWT, down 30.7 percent year on year. The orders represent about 1.8 years of the shipbuilders' work.