Chinese Shipyards Dominate the Container Ship Newbuilding Market
Publish Time: 2025-10-24 Origin: Site
According to analysis firm Alphaliner, approximately 98.5% of contracted container ships are built in China, South Korea, and Japan.
New container ship orders totaling over 10 million TEUs are dominated by these three East Asian countries, with China holding the largest share.
Data disclosed in Alphaliner’s weekly report shows that Chinese shipyards are constructing container ships with a total capacity of 7.36 million TEUs, accounting for 73.7% of the global total orders. South Korean shipyards rank second with 2.04 million TEUs in orders (20.4% of the global total), while Japanese shipyards have 430,000 TEUs in orders, accounting for only 4.3%. Beyond shipyards in China, South Korea, and Japan, there are only 29 container ship orders globally from other countries.
Through the Section 301 investigation conducted by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), the U.S. has targeted China’s dominant position in the global shipbuilding industry. As a result, additional port fees have been imposed on ships built in China when calling at U.S. ports starting from October 14.
By comparing the current order composition with the construction locations of the existing fleet, it is easy to see the rise of Chinese shipyards in the container ship sector in recent years.
In the existing container ship fleet, 50.1% (16.4 million TEUs) of the ships were built in South Korea, 29.4% (9.6 million TEUs) in China, 9.9% (3.2 million TEUs) in Japan, and 10.7% (3.5 million TEUs) in other countries.
Except for the three major East Asian shipbuilding powers, other countries have been largely marginalized in the container ship newbuilding market. Among the 29 container ship orders outside the three major countries, 16 are built by shipyards in Taiwan, China. Among them, CSBC in Taiwan, China, is still a small player in the global shipbuilding industry.