by Lloyd's List
22 January 2025 (Lloyd's List) - SEVEN out of the top 10 individual shipyards globally are based in China, underscoring the country’s dominance in shipbuilding that is difficult to shake.
The ranking is based on Clarksons’ data and measured by the volume of new orders received in 2024.
Two of the top three are Chinese privately-owned players. Jiangsu’s New Times Shipbuilding tops the list with 4.6m cgt, while New Yangzijiang, which is also based in Jiangsu and part of Singapore-listed Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, places third with 3.4m cgt.
Sandwiched between them in second place is Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding, the flagship unit of state-owned China State Shipbuilding Corp, with 4.2m cgt.
Another notable name is Dalian-based Hengli Heavy Industry, part of the privately owned Chinese conglomerate Hengli Group.
After being reborn from the bankrupt STX Dalian, just two years after re-entering operations, the revived Chinese builder secured nearly 2.7m cgt in new orders last year to rank fourth.
Hengli recently announced plans to recruit 30,000 workers, technicians and engineers for a new shipyard.
South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries, Hanwha Ocean and HD Hyundai Samho took fifth to seventh place, respectively.
SHI, Hanwha and Hyundai Samho’s parent, HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, are known as the country’s “Big Three” shipbuilders. The trio are poised to collectively post first full-year profits since 2013, benefiting from the continued market boom.
The remaining three spots were taken by other CSSC yards. With an orderbook backlog of over 30m cgt, CSSC is currently the world’s largest shipbuilding group, accounting for around 20% of global share.
According to the latest data from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Chinese yards accounted for 55.4% and 68.2% of global orderbook backlog and 2024 new orders in cgt terms, respectively.
From 2018 to 2020, South Korean shipbuilders led in new order volumes for three consecutive years. However, they were overtaken by their Chinese rivals who have held the lead since.
“Over the past decade, Chinese shipbuilders gained market leadership, while Japanese and Korean peers suffered due to higher costs and labour shortages,” said HSBC in a research report. “Chinese yards benefited from policy support, a weaker currency, softer steel prices, and weak labour market capping costs.”
While the year of 2024 marked a 17-year high for new orders and a record high for newbuilding prices, the market is expected to soften from the peak.
“With tight yard capacity and forward cover of about four years, new orders are likely to slow as ship owners become reluctant to commit to longer term deliveries due to a lack of visibility on the shipping cycle,” said HSBC.
“We also expect the earnings outlook for container shipping, a driver of recent newbuilds, to soften beyond 2025.”
That said, the investment bank forecasts new order volumes over the next five years will still be 40% higher than the annual average during 2016-2020.
And it remains upbeat about the longer-term outlook, bolstered by demand to replace elderly vessels.
“We believe a long-term newbuilding cycle is underway, with tailwinds from the renewal of an ageing fleet and over 60,000 fossil-fuelled cargoships to be replaced over the next two decades.”
