China’s shipyards won 59.53m dwt of new orders in the first quarter of 2026, up 195.2% year on year, giving the country 84.9% of global newbuilding orders, according to China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
Completions reached 15.68m dwt, up 46% from the same period last year, while the orderbook rose 43.6% to 322.3m dwt.
China accounted for 57.3% of global shipbuilding completions and 69.8% of the global order backlog between January and March.
Chinese yards ranked first globally in new orders for 15 of the world’s 18 major ship categories.
In large vessels, China’s international market share exceeded 90% for very large crude carriers, large car carriers, bulk carriers and large container ships of more than 10,000 TEU.
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is a ministry of the State Council responsible for industrial planning, manufacturing policy, information technology, telecommunications and related industrial sectors.