China takes 81.8% of global new ship orders in first nine months, cementing its lead in shipbuilding market

Statistics on China’s shipbuilding industry for the January‑September period, released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) on Friday, show that China continues to lead the world in the three key shipbuilding indicators. Notably, more than 80 percent of global new ship orders went to China, consolidating the country’s dominant position in the global shipbuilding market. According to MIIT, in the first nine months of 2026, China completed 58.05 million deadweight tonnes (DWT) of shipbuilding output, a year‑on‑year rise of 50.7 percent. New ship orders hit 175.29 million DWT, surging 163.2 percent year on year. As of the end of September, the order backlog stood at 399.13 million DWT, up 64.8 percent from a year earlier.

China’s shipbuilding output, new orders and order backlog accounted for 63.6 percent, 81.8 percent and 72.4 percent of the respective global market shares, MIIT data shows.

Beyond the robust performance of the three core indicators, China is accelerating the green transition of its shipbuilding sector. It secured 74.1 percent of the global new-order market for green-powered vessels, up 5.7 percentage points from the January-June period. Source: Global Times

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