It has been forecast that 200 shipyards will shut down this year worldwide amid hard times for the shipbuilding sector.

Yang Hyung-mo, a researcher at eBEST Investment & Securities, on Tuesday pointed to the concern, citing the Shipping Market Review report for May published by the Danish Ship Finance(DSF), a Copenhagen-based shipping bank.

The report forecasts that amid the sluggish global shipbuilding sector, 200 shipyards around the world are expected to shut down their businesses this year, leaving only about 530 remaining by the end of the year.

It projected that the closures will be due to a number of factors such as cancelled orders, deadline delays and a dent in finances affected by a drop in new orders.

The DSF predicts that some 45 percent of order backlogs at present are expected to be delivered within this year and shipyards will receive nearly no new orders next year.

The report also assessed that 52 percent of shipbuilders are scheduled to have 90 percent of their orders at hand delivered by this year, while 70 percent of the Chinese shipping sector's order book faces the risk of a delayed delivery deadline.

Yang projected that global shipyards will undergo major restructuring from this year and most of them will shut down by next year. He said that ever after a reorganization, shipyards that had once closed will not be able to enter the industry again.