Korea topped the global shipbuilding market in July. Clarkson Research said Tuesday that Korea received orders totaling 970,000 compensated gross tons in the month, or about 50 percent of the global total.

China was second with 280,000 CGT, followed by Japan with 120,000 CGT.

Meanwhile, Korea received orders of 6.45 million CGT in the January-July period, compared to China's 5.01 million CGT.

Global orders increased 38 percent to 2.01 million CGT last month from June.