Posted on October 26, 2026
By Emma Ma
China’s shipbuilding sector now leads the world by an overwhelming margin, with the country’s shipyards accounting for 81.8 per cent of global new ship orders in the first nine months of the year, according to official data.
Demand was also expected to stay resilient, with elevated crude oil prices helping to support orders for new vessels, analysts said.
Total outstanding orders at Chinese shipyards reached 399.13 million deadweight tonnes (dwt) at the end of September, up 64.8 per cent year on year, according to data released on Friday by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The figure accounted for 72.4 per cent of the global total.
Chinese shipyards completed vessels with a combined carrying capacity of 58.05 million dwt during the first three quarters, representing over 63 per cent of the global total.
Building an ultra-large container ship capable of carrying 24,000 twenty-foot equivalent units – a standard measure of container capacity – required about 50,000 tonnes of steel and millions of components, CCTV reported. A single project could bring together more than 200 suppliers across dozens of industries, including steel, electrical engineering and machinery, according to the report.
Analysts said the global shipbuilding market was likely to remain robust, with China expected to continue reaping the largest share of the gains.
Yue Xin, an analyst at Shanghai-based Guotai Haitong Securities, wrote in a September research note that container ships remained the largest vessel category, accounting for 39.8 per cent of the global order book so far this year.
However, Yue also flagged a sharp increase in orders for very large crude carriers (VLCCs), with European shipowners leading the trend.
“Return expectations are the key for shipowners placing newbuilding orders … Since 2026, geopolitical conflicts have continued to lift crude prices, and the five-year time-charter rate for a VLCC now stands at US$50,000 per day,” Yue wrote.
Shipbuilding capacity had also expanded at a relatively “slow” and “restrained” pace, helping to sustain the prolonged boom, he added.
Yao Pei, an analyst at Guizhou-based Huachuang Securities, wrote in a research note in mid-October that the boom was poised to continue. Chinese shipyards could further expand their global market share on the back of their competitive strengths, Yao added.
China’s shipbuilding sector is also building more green-powered vessels. It secured 74.1 per cent of global orders in the category, according to the ministry’s data, up 5.7 percentage points from the January-June period.
