South Korea is likely to become the number one country in the global shipbuilding industry for the first time in seven years. 

According to British research firm Clarkson Research Services, South Korean shipbuilders won ten-million-900-thousand compensated gross tonnage(CGT) or 42 percent of total ship orders placed globally between January and November. 

South Korea handed the title over to China in 2012 and trailed China in the following five years. 

This year, China is lagging behind with 34 percent of global orders through November at eight-point-74 million CGT. 

China, however, is still leading in terms of order backlog at over 29 million CGTs, followed by South Korea at over 20 million CGTs and Japan at over 13 million CGTs.

CGT is a measurement of how much work is needed to build a ship.