It is projected that China’s shipbuilding completion volume will exceed 60 million deadweight tons in 2026.

　　In 2025, China's shipbuilding industry has maintained the world's largest market share for 16 consecutive years. The completed shipbuilding volume, new orders received, and orders on hand accounted for 56.1%, 69.0%, and 66.8% of the world's total in deadweight tons, and 50.3%, 63.0%, and 59.4% in gross tons, respectively. The international market share of new green ship orders reached 69.2%. Six companies ranked among the top ten in the world for completed shipbuilding volume, new orders received, and orders on hand. Among them, China State Shipbuilding Corporation Limited ranked first in the three major shipbuilding indicators among global shipbuilding groups.

　　It is expected that in 2026, the global shipbuilding completion volume will remain at the level of 120 million deadweight tons, new orders received at 120 million deadweight tons, and orders on hand at over 350 million deadweight tons. China's shipbuilding completion volume will exceed 60 million deadweight tons, with new orders received slightly declining from the previous year, and orders on hand remaining above 250 million deadweight tons.

　　The year 2025 marks the conclusion of the "14th Five-Year Plan," and China's shipbuilding industry continues to maintain a stable and improving development trend, with the three major shipbuilding indicators fluctuating within a reasonable range. The international market share remains leading, and the export value of ships continues to grow. However, the uncertainty brought by global geopolitical conflicts and anti-globalization developments still impacts the shipbuilding industry.

　　In 2025, the national shipbuilding completion volume was 53.69 million deadweight tons, an increase of 11.4% year-on-year; new orders received were 107.82 million deadweight tons, a decrease of 4.6% year-on-year. As of the end of December 2025, the national shipbuilding companies held orders of 274.42 million deadweight tons, an increase of 31.5% year-on-year.

　　In 2025, the national completed export ships amounted to 47.95 million deadweight tons, an increase of 13.9% year-on-year; export ship orders received were 95.10 million deadweight tons, a decrease of 8.1% year-on-year; as of the end of December 2025, export ship orders on hand were 253.56 million deadweight tons, an increase of 30.5% year-on-year. In 2025, export ships accounted for 89.3%, 88.2%, and 92.4% of the national shipbuilding completion volume, new orders received, and orders on hand, respectively.

　　In 2025, the national export value of ship products was 55.08 billion US dollars, an increase of 26.7% year-on-year, of which the export value of the three main ship types, bulk carriers, oil tankers, and container ships, totaled 30.46 billion US dollars, accounting for 55.3% of the total export value.

　　Facing the challenges and uncertainties brought by current geopolitical conflicts and trade protectionism, Chinese shipbuilding companies are under increasing pressure to ensure timely delivery, fast delivery, and quality delivery of ships. Moreover, with the rapid increase in production tasks for shipbuilding companies, the challenges to safe production in shipyards are becoming more severe.

　　The China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry suggests that shipbuilding companies prepare for related work in 2026:

　　Make every effort to ensure "ship delivery"

　　The entire industry should focus on "ensuring ship delivery, fast delivery, and quality delivery" as the core, proactively responding to external risks. On one hand, companies should consolidate management foundations, continuously improve and perfect safety production rules and operating procedures, implement risk hazard investigations and on-site safety supervision work, and jointly establish new benchmarks for ship safety production. On the other hand, they should manage the supply chain of the industry chain well, using market-based means to reduce the impact of material cost fluctuations. At the same time, accelerate intelligent transformation and digital transformation, promote the application of intelligent robots and automated production lines, and continuously improve production and management efficiency.

　　Increase market development efforts

　　Currently, shipowners have an urgent demand for green intelligent systems and "one-stop comprehensive solutions" covering fuel, financing, and operation and maintenance. Meanwhile, the development and construction capabilities of a new generation of advanced ship types with stronger energy-saving and environmental protection performance, and higher levels of digitization and automation, will become key factors in the competitiveness of shipbuilding companies in receiving orders. Shipbuilding companies should increase their efforts in international operations, accelerate the construction of global marketing and service networks, promote the construction of overseas R&D centers, and enhance their ability to develop international markets.

　　Cultivate new economic growth points

　　The entire industry should strengthen marine technology innovation, consolidate and enhance the advantages of the marine equipment manufacturing industry, promote the upgrading of the industry towards high-end, intelligent, green, and integrated development, accelerate the development of new marine engineering equipment such as floating green energy storage devices, deep-sea development equipment, deep-sea mining equipment, and polar resource development equipment, cultivate and expand emerging industries and future industries, carry out consumer innovations such as cruise ships, yachts, night tour boats, and leisure fishing boats, accelerate the electrification transformation of inland river ships, promote the industrialization development of deep-sea aquaculture equipment, release the potential of the domestic market, and cultivate new economic growth points.