China’s shipyards achieved a record 47% market share in 2022, according to a new report released by the global shipping trade organisation Bimco.
Bimco analysts say Chinese shipbuilders exceeded the combined market share of Japanese and South Korean shipyards for the first time last year.
Maritime Executive reports that China initially attracted orders by offering lower costs, focusing on building the most basic ships such as bulk carriers. This added to the shift away from Europe’s traditional shipbuilders to the lower-cost firms based in Japan, South Korea, and China.
Chinese shipbuilders have also recently invested in new systems and processes to enhance productivity and operate in the high-value, more complex segments of the market, which has seen them working on orders for LNG gas carriers. They have also used their first domestic cruise ship construction to develop their expertise in the segment.
“Chinese shipyards’ success has been achieved by maintaining a leading position within dry bulk ships and, more recently, establishing themselves as the premier location for building containerships,” said Niels Rasmussen, chief shipping analyst at Bimco.
South Korea currently has the highest number of orders for methanol dual-fuelled containerships. However, China has grown over the past 20 years, initially building 5 000-TEU ships but now completing construction this month of two of the world’s largest containerships, each with a carrying capacity of more than 24 000 TEUs.
According to Bimco’s analysis of Clarkson Shipping Intelligence Network data, ships delivered to new owners by Chinese shipyards in 2022 totalled 14.6 million , equating to Compensated Gross Tonne (CGT), or nearly half the 30.8m CGT delivered globally.
China delivered nearly twice as many CGTs as South Korea (7.8m CGT), despite its strict Covid-19 lockdown disruptions. Japanese shipyards declined to deliveries of just 4.8m CGT. South Korea and Japan, combined, delivered 12.6m CGT.
Clarkson calculates that China held less than 10% of the market in 2000, but by 2009 it emerged as the market leader. Overall, the Chinese industry holds 45% of the global orderbook or 109.1m CGT.
However, Bimco warned that cost increases could threaten China’s longer-term position. Potential lower-cost countries like Vietnam and the Philippines could become larger competitors in future, similar to how shipbuilding moved from Europe to Japan, South Korea and China.
