"China is becoming the world's shipyard." The overseas edition of the People's Daily quoted the website of the Wall Street Journal as saying, "China is far and away the world's largest shipbuilding country."

    Supporting this sentence "far ahead" is the newly released authoritative data - in the first half of 2024, in the global new shipbuilding market, China's shipbuilding industry with more than 60% of the market share of South Korea and Japan.

    At the beginning of the century 20 years ago, China's shipbuilding industry accounted for less than 10% of the global market. By the first half of last year, China's shipbuilding market share surged to 52%, the second half of last year increased to 57%, the first half of this year further exceeded 60%. In the second quarter of this year, it was even closer to 80%!

    In the eyes of the international industry, Chinese shipyards have completely dominated the global ship market. July 11th China Sailing Day is approaching, tide news brings you attention to the Chinese shipbuilding industry in the world.

    In the global shipbuilding competition, China has made great progress this year

    According to the data released by Clarkson, a British shipbuilding and Marine dynamic analysis agency, in the first half of this year, the global new ship order volume was 903 ships, 24.01 million revised gross tons (CGT), and the total value of 80.3 billion US dollars. Among them, China has undertaken 615 new ship orders, 15.4 million CGT, 48.2 billion US dollars, with a global market share of 64% in CGT, nearly two-thirds, and more than 60% in value.

    South Korea received 132 new ship orders of 5.94 million CGT and 19.7 billion US dollars, with a share of nearly 25%. With orders for 49 ships worth 710,000 CGT and $1.9 billion, Japan's market share has slipped to less than 3%.

    Even more striking are the figures for June. According to Clarkson released on July 4, the global new ship order volume in June this year was 100 ships, 2.43 million CGT, 7.6 billion US dollars. China took on 74 new ship orders of 1.9 million CGT and 5.7 billion US dollars, accounting for 78.2% in CGT and 75% in value, reaching or exceeding three-quarters of the global market.

    Among them, South Korea undertook 8 new ship orders of 220,000 CGT and 600 million US dollars, accounting for 9.1% in CGT and 7.9% in value, both less than 10%; Japan's order for three new ships, 50,000 CGT, 100 million US dollars, is even less.

    You know, Japan was able to maintain about 10% of the global market share last year, and now it is gradually losing its foothold in the competition between China and South Korea.

    "Mid-size ships account for the majority of the global market, but since 2010, Korea has lost the market to China due to the prolonged slump in the ship market and the bankruptcy of key mid-size shipyards," said a Korean industry source.

    In the first half of the year, the global share of the Korean shipbuilding industry was barely maintained at the level of 25%, which made the Korean industry sound the alarm that it is standing at a dangerous crossroads, and the government should further increase its policy support for the shipbuilding industry to maintain the position of the Korean shipbuilding industry as a "global famous".

    China's shipbuilding capacity is already 232 times that of the US

    Entering the 2020s, China's shipbuilding industry has accelerated its rise and become a leader in the global shipbuilding industry. This is evident in a recent Clarkson report that China has won 53% of the world's new ship orders in CGT terms from 2020 to date.

    China first took the lead in the construction of bulk carriers, capturing virtually the majority of global bulk carrier orders since 2006 and a 68 percent share since 2020, the report said. In CGT terms, bulk carriers accounted for 28% of China's new ship orders from 2020 to date, more than any other ship type, but already down sharply from 45% in the 2000-2020 period.

    At the same time, China continues to expand its market share in high value-added vessels, with the fastest progress being made in container ships, where the market share rose from 19 percent in the 2000s to 38 percent in the 2010s, and has surged to 59 percent since 2020. In the oil tanker sector, China's market share has increased to 53 percent from 2020 to now, up from 24 percent in the 2000s and 31 percent in the 2010s. In the field of vehicle carriers, which has become a hot market in recent years, China has won 84% of orders since 2020.

    Among the major merchant ship types, China currently ranks second only to South Korea in the liquefied gas carrier sector. However, China has also made significant progress in this area, with its market share rising from 4% in the 2000s and 12% in the 2010s to 26% since 2020. Since the beginning of this year, Chinese shipping companies have undertaken 38% of the world's liquefied gas tanker orders, and South Korea's market share has dropped to 61%.

    In particular, with aircraft carriers and large cruise ships and known as the shipbuilding industry's "three crown pearl" large LNG carrier market, the market share of Chinese ship enterprises in the first half of the year reached 41%, and Hudong China has won a total of 18 QC-Max 271,000 square meters LNG carrier orders in Qatar's "100 ship plan". Al-kabi, Qatar's Minister of State for Energy Affairs, said the contract was a historic breakthrough, setting a record for the highest value of a single new ship order.

    At present, five shipyards in China have received orders for large LNG carriers, which has changed the situation of a Chinese shipyard in Hudongzhonghua against the three South Korean companies.

    According to the People's Daily Overseas edition in May, citing data from the U.S. Department of Naval Intelligence, China's shipbuilding capacity has reached 232 times that of the United States.

    To become a shipbuilding power, we need to work hard in three aspects

    By 2023, the three major indicators of China's shipbuilding industry have ranked first in the world for 14 consecutive years. Foreign media analysis generally pointed out that today China's shipbuilding industry in the world's leading position is very stable.

    According to the overseas edition of the People's Daily, the background of the rapid development of China's shipbuilding industry is that the global shipbuilding industry is ushering in a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial change "super cycle". With the elimination and renewal of old ships and the landing of new environmental protection regulations, the demand for new ships in the international market is strong.

    Zhang Hongpeng, professor and doctoral supervisor of Dalian Maritime University, believes that the rapid development of China's shipbuilding industry is due to many factors. "First of all, China has rich Marine resources and a good Marine environment. Second, the Chinese government has continuously improved the technological level and production capacity of the manufacturing industry through support and scientific and technological innovation. In addition, China also has a large contingent of skilled workers, providing a strong talent guarantee for the shipbuilding industry."

    Zhang Hongpeng told reporters that China's current new shipbuilding offer and cost relative to Japan and South Korea have a certain advantage. In recent years, South Korea's shipbuilding industry is facing a serious shortage of workers, for which a large number of workers are imported from Vietnam, Nepal, Thailand and other countries, and labor costs are rising, which makes cost-effective Chinese shipbuilding favored by the international market.

    However, in Zhang Hongpeng's view, China needs to make hard efforts in the following three aspects to move forward from a shipbuilding country to a shipbuilding power.

    First, optimize supporting facilities and further enhance the stability of industrial chain and supply chain. With the substantial growth of new orders, the supply of imported ship supporting products has problems, and the supply of key equipment in some projects has lagged behind, affecting the construction progress of the project to a certain extent.

    The second is to strengthen security to meet the rapidly rising demand for employment. The shipbuilding industry is both a technology-intensive industry and a labor-intensive industry, and "machine replacement" can only be realized in some links. The recovery of orders has led many enterprises to face labor pressure, especially the demand for skilled workers in assembly, welding and other positions has increased significantly.

    Third, early deployment and timely regulation of production capacity. Since 2008, the shipbuilding industry capacity has been in an orderly reduction. Now the market is picking up, attracting a lot of social capital attention, and some enterprises also hope to expand production capacity. However, the existing shipbuilding capacity is enough to cover the market capacity of global new ship orders, and it needs to be prepared for a rainy day and appropriate regulation.