In 2025, China has retained the first place in the world in shipbuilding in three key indicators at once – output (ships delivered), new orders and order book, the Ministry of Industry and Informatisation of the People’s Republic of China reported, the information and analytical centre Experts Club notes.
Below is a ranking of the largest shipbuilding countries for 2025 for each of the indicators (different sources use different units – deadweight (DWT or total ship tonnage), compensated gross tonnage CGT and gross tonnage GT, so the indicators are compared primarily as shares and order of countries) .
1) Output (ships delivered) in 2025, DWT – top by volume:
1. China-53.69 million deadweight tonnes, +11.4% y/y, 56.1% of global output. 2. South Korea-estimated by market structure; Clarksons Research estimates Korea’s share of 2025 output at around 27%. 3. Japan-estimated; share of about 14%.
Reference: based on China’s share, global output in 2025 can be estimated at about 95.7 million DWTs (calculated based on a 56.1% share).
2) New orders in 2025-top countries:
1. China-35.37 million CGT, 63% of global new orders. 2. South Korea-11.6 million CGT, about 21%. 3. Japan-2.8 million CGT, about 5%. 4. Other countries-totaling about 6.7 million CGT (balance of global 56.43 million CGT).
3) Order portfolio at the end of 2025 (orderbook), DWT-top countries:
1. China-274.42 million DWT, +31.5% y/y, 66.8% of global portfolio. 2. South Korea-2nd place; industry reviews estimate Korea’s share of the portfolio at around 18%. 3. Japan-3rd place; Japan’s portfolio is estimated at 40.7 million DWT.