China's shipping industry reported a 72.6 percent drop in its new orders in the first half of this year, according to China's Ministry of Industry and Information.

The shipbuilders built vessels with a total carrying capacity of 18.53 million tons in the first six months, up 6.3 percent over the same period of last year.

But the total number of new orders decreased a great deal, receiving orders totaling 11.19 million tons of cargo capacity, a 72.6 percent drop from last year.