Enquiries for repairs, scrubber retrofits and dry-docking are on the up at South East Asian shipyards — with one outfit claiming a 50% hike in business — as their Chinese rivals near a standstill after the Covid-19 outbreak.

The scale of the problem facing shipping was revealed last week when the China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry estimated that there were more than 200 vessels in the country facing potential delays.