16-Year Dominance Unbroken
In 2025, China’s shipbuilding industry demonstrated strong resilience amid the complex and volatile global economic and trade environment. The three core indicators continued to lead the world comprehensively, further consolidating China’s status as the global shipbuilding center.
From January to December 2025, China’s shipbuilding completion volume reached 53.69 million deadweight tons, representing a year-on-year increase of 11.4% and accounting for 56.1% of the world’s total. The new order volume stood at 107.82 million deadweight tons, a year-on-year decrease of 4.6%, accounting for 69.0% of the world’s total. By the end of December, the backlog of orders reached 274.42 million deadweight tons, up 31.5% year-on-year and accounting for 66.8% of the world’s total. China’s shipbuilding market share in these three core indicators has remained the world’s leading for 16 consecutive years.
High-end & Green Breakthroughs
The development achievements of the past year are reflected not only in scale and quantity but also in industrial upgrading and technological innovation. The proportion of high-end ship types has increased significantly. High-value-added ships such as liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers, large container ships, and pure car and truck carriers (PCTCs) have achieved outstanding results in undertaking and delivery, with their global market share expanding continuously. Green ships have become the mainstay of new orders, with orders for low-carbon and zero-carbon ships such as methanol-powered and ammonia-fuel-ready vessels growing rapidly, reflecting the forward-looking layout of China’s shipbuilders in response to the global shipping emission reduction trend. The ability of industrial chain collaboration has been enhanced, the self-sufficiency rate of supporting equipment has been steadily improved, breakthroughs have been made in some key equipment fields, and the advantages of industrial clusters have been further leveraged.
From Scale Leadership to Quality & Innovation Leadership
Looking ahead to 2026, China’s shipbuilding industry will enter a critical stage of deepening transformation from “scale leadership” to “quality and innovation leadership”. On the one hand, the huge backlog of orders provides a solid foundation for ensuring the stable operation of the industry, but at the same time, it also imposes higher requirements on enterprises’ refined production management, supply chain collaboration, and on-time delivery capabilities. On the other hand, the profound changes in the global shipping market and energy transition will continue to affect the structure of new ship demand. It is expected that green and intelligent ships will still be the mainstream of the market, and the competition around zero-carbon fuel technologies, ship intelligent operation and maintenance, and digital solutions will become more intense. This means that China’s shipbuilders need to further increase investment in low-carbon technology R&D, intelligent ship system integration, and full-life-cycle services while consolidating their manufacturing advantages.
At the same time, the challenges of the external environment cannot be ignored. The uncertainty of global economic growth, adjustments in the trade pattern, and the continuous upgrading of international maritime environmental protection regulations will all bring uncertainties to the development of the industry. China’s shipbuilding industry needs to focus on its main business, enhance its core competitive advantages through deepening technological innovation, promoting intelligent manufacturing, and optimizing the global service network. It is expected that in 2026, the industry will continue to maintain its leading position in the global market share, make more substantial breakthroughs on the road to high-end and green development, contribute more “Chinese solutions” and “Chinese intelligence” to the low-carbon transformation of the global shipping industry, and promote China’s steady progress from a major shipbuilding country to a strong shipbuilding country.
