Last year, owners worldwide placed orders for about 2,500 ships. Out of these, more than 1,500 – over 60 percent – went to yards in China. Measured in tonnage, China’s share of the new order volume was slightly higher at about 62 percent. (The China Ministry of Industry and Information puts it even higher, at 69 percent, along with 56 percent of all completed deliveries for the year.)
South Korea, the runner-up for new orders, won contracts for 260 vessels, or a bit more than 10 percent of the global total. Japan, long in third place, received 230 orders and a global share of about nine percent.
In the defense shipbuilding realm, CSSC also dominated world rankings by a wide margin, supported by the industrial infrastructure and experienced workforce built up by its commercial orderbook. Its yards commissioned one catapult-equipped carrier, one large amphib, at least seven destroyers and six frigates in 2025, plus additional submarine deliveries (unpublished). Its first ‘drone carrier’ catapult-equipped amphib, the Type 076 – the only ship of its type yet built – is now out on sea trials.