South Korea's shipbuilders ranked second in new orders last month, again losing the top spot to China. 

According to Clarksons Research Service on Wednesday, shipbuilders across the world secured roughly two million compensated gross tons(CGTs) in combined orders in August, down 30 percent compared to the same period last year.

South Korean shipbuilders bagged 270-thousand CGTs, or 13 percent of the total. 

Though the figure placed South Korea in second place in terms of orders, the gap with China was significant as Chinese shipbuilders took up 82 percent of total CGTs to rank first in secured orders. 

By number of ships, South Korea secured orders to build six ships while China had 60. 

The cumulative amount of new orders secured in the first eight months of this year slipped 22 percent on-year to some 26-point-eight million CGTs. South Korea secured 27 percent of such orders and China 58 percent.