SEOUL, Nov. 6 (Yonhap) - South Korean shipbuilders were outpaced by their Chinese rivals in the number of new orders received this year and order backlogs, according to a London-based market researcher Friday.

Korean shipbuilders such as Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. and Samsung Heavy Industries Co. won a combined 1.64 million compensated gross tons (CGTs) in new orders in the first 10 months of the year, accounting for 31.8 per cent of all new global orders, said Clarkson Research Studies, a division of Clarkson PLC, the world's leading shipping services provider.