One of the world’s leading shipbuilders may have added as few as two ships to its order books in the first six months of 2012, evidence of how the global economic slowdown is hitting the sector in China after a boom in recent years.

China’s Rongsheng Heavy Industries yesterday said that in the first half of the year the company only received orders worth $58m, all for Panamaxes. Based on the average market price for these vessels designed to traverse the Panama Canal, that equates to about two ships and compares with $725m in the second half of last year when it received a big order for Suezmax ships.

The company has embodied the spectacular rise of China’s shipbuilding capability, but its reliance on traditional vessels carrying goods and commodities means it is coping with the global economic downturn less well than its more diversified rivals in South Korea, the world’s largest shipbuilding nation.