As is common knowledge, China has become the main builder of container vessels and the country’s shipyards presently account for 68.5% of the global boxship orderbook in terms of teu capacity.
South Korea, once the undisputed number one in this sector, has been relegated to second place, with an orderbook share of 23.3%.
Chinese yards took the largest share of new vessel orders for the first time in 2015, when the nation’s builders bagged orders for a total of 0.90 Mteu, and China was also slightly ahead in 2016. The two years were, however, not particularly representative since ordering activity was very low overall.
When vessel ordering resumed, albeit on a moderate level, Korea was able to claw back its lead for 2017, 2018 and 2019. China eventually regained the top-spot in 2020 with 0.63 Mteu worth of newbuilding orders, against 0.38 Mteu for South Korea.
So far in 2024, China’s yards bagged a whopping 3.61 Mteu of orders, far more than the 0.66 Mteu recorded for South Korea. In addition to the cost advantage, a number of Chinese yards committed to massive capacity expansion projects that allowed them to create numerous newbuilding slots for 2027 and beyond.
Source: Alphaliner
