In 2025, which has just ended, the global new shipbuilding market has cooled down significantly amid the decline from high levels. China's shipbuilding industry has withstood the impact of external non-market factors such as the US Section 301 policy, and still ranks first in the world in terms of orders received, but its market share has declined for the first time in the past five years.
According to data released by Clarkson on January 7, for the whole of 2025, the global cumulative new ship order volume was 2,036 ships with 56.43 million corrected gross tons (CGT), a 27% decrease in CGT from 76.78 million CGT in 2024. Among them, Chinese shipbuilding companies received orders for 1,421 ships worth 35.37 million CGT, a year-on-year decrease of 35%, with a market share of 63%, ranking first in the world; Korean shipbuilding companies received orders for 247 ships worth 11.6 million CGT, a year-on-year increase of 8%, with a market share of 21%, ranking second.
In December last year, the global new ship order volume was 264 ships with 8.09 million CGT, a 69% decrease in CGT from 4.79 million CGT in the same period in 2024, and an increase of 23% from 6.59 million CGT in November last year. Among them, Chinese shipbuilding companies received orders for 223 new ships worth 5.71 million CGT, with a global market share of 71%, ranking first; Korean shipbuilding companies received orders for 23 ships worth 1.47 million CGT, with a global market share of 18%, ranking second.
The Korean industry said that although the number of orders received by Korean shipbuilding companies in 2025 is still far less than that of China, in terms of single ship CGT, South Korea is 47,000 CGT per ship and China is 25,000 CGT. South Korea is nearly twice that of China. This is because South Korean shipbuilding companies continue to receive orders centered on high value-added ship types.
In 2025, the number of orders received by Chinese shipbuilding companies will decrease by 35% year-on-year, while the number of orders received by Korean shipbuilding companies will increase by 8% year-on-year. This has also become the key for the Korean shipbuilding industry to narrow the market share gap with China after 5 years.
It is worth mentioning that this is the first time in the past five years that the market share of Chinese shipbuilding companies has declined, and it is also the first time that the gap between China and South Korea has narrowed. In 2021, China's shipbuilding industry's global market share will be 51%, and South Korea's will be 32%; in 2022, China's shipbuilding industry's global market share will be 52%, and South Korea's will be 32%; in 2023, China's shipbuilding industry's global market share will rise to 60%, and South Korea's global market share will drop to 20%; in 2024, China's shipbuilding industry's global market share will rise again to 71%, while South Korea's will decrease to 14%. The market share gap between the two parties increased from 19 percentage points to 57 percentage points in four years, showing a trend of expanding year by year.
Clarkson pointed out that the international situation in 2025 will be an even greater test for China's shipbuilding industry. U.S. policy targets China's shipbuilding and China's shipbuilding, and Chinese shipbuilding companies have experienced unprecedented tests from external non-market factors.
From the perspective of ship type, China continues to expand its leading position in bulk carrier construction, with its order share exceeding 80% for the first time; container ship feeder and large ship orders were received at the same time, capturing 68% of container ship orders throughout the year; oil tanker orders benefited from the strength and flexibility of major countries. With active shipbuilding production capacity, batch orders were completed at the end of the year, and the global order intake surpassed South Korea in one fell swoop; orders for liquefied gas ships have been adjusted in timing. When China's mainstream shipyards are full of orders and have tight ship slots, orders flow to South Korea, which can provide earlier delivery. As a market for gas carriers that are difficult to build but have small ships, it is difficult for liquefied gas carrier production capacity to transfer to small and medium-sized enterprises. But in addition to this, it should also be pointed out that due to the impact of the US Section 301 policy, the stance of some shipowners has changed, resulting in some orders flowing to overseas shipyards. Under the influence of the overall rebound in orders, the impact on China's volume will be small.
It is understood that in April 2024, following the petition of five U.S. labor unions, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) launched a 301 investigation into China’s maritime, logistics and shipbuilding industries. In February 2025, USTR released a draft of Section 301 for China’s shipping, logistics and shipbuilding industries. This had a significant impact on the new shipbuilding market. In March, South Korean shipbuilding companies once topped the list with 55% of global orders, while Chinese shipbuilding companies accounted for only 35% of the market that month.
As USTR announced a revised final port fee collection plan in April 2025, easing charges for Chinese-built ships or newbuildings owned by non-Chinese companies, shipowners began to return to Chinese shipyards to order ships. In April, Chinese shipbuilding companies successfully secured nearly 70% of the world's new ship orders, and since then the number of monthly orders has ranked first in the world.
At the end of October last year, after China and the United States agreed to suspend the mutual collection of port fees and reciprocal tariffs for one year, the USTR announced on November 9 that it would suspend the implementation of its Section 301 investigation measures on China's maritime, logistics and shipbuilding industries for one year starting from November 10. China has also decided to suspend the collection of special port fees from US ships.
As of the end of December last year, the global order book volume was 173.91 million CGT, an increase of 3.12 million CGT from the end of November last year. Among them, China's on-hand order volume reached 107.48 million CGT, an increase of 10.01 million CGT year-on-year, and continued to rank first with a market share of 62%; South Korea's on-hand order volume was 35.12 million CGT, a year-on-year decrease of 2.45 million CGT, with a market share of 20%, ranking second.
In December last year, new ship prices continued to maintain a stable momentum. The Clarkson Newbuilding Price Index was 184.65 points, an increase of 0.32 percentage points from 184.33 points in November, and an increase of about 47% from 125.6 points in the same period five years ago.
In terms of ship type, the price of a 174,000 cubic meter large LNG carrier was US$248 million, the same as in November; the price of a very large crude carrier (VLCC) was US$128 million, an increase of US$500,000 from US$127.5 million in October; the price of a 22,000~24,000TEU ultra-large container ship was US$262 million, a US$2 million decrease from US$264 million in November.