Faced with fierce foreign competition and macroeconomic uncertainty, Japanese shipbuilders aim to expand their orderbooks on the back of newbuilding demand triggered by tightening environmental regulations.

Despite slowly recovering order intake in the past two years, data from the Japan Ship Exporters’ ­Association (JSEA) shows domestic shipyards’ total backlog has continued to shrink.

The national export orderbook consisted of 488 vessels of 24.4