Seatrade Maritime: Newbuilding orders drop 24% at Chinese shipbuilders

The volume of newbuilding orders placed at Chinese contracted by 23.5% in the first nine months of 2025 compared to the previous year.  

For the first three quarters, China’s shipbuilding output reached 38.53 million dwt, a year-on-year increase of 6%; new orders received amounted to 66.60 million dwt, a decrease of 23.5%.

As of the end of September, the orders on hands stood at 242.24 million dwt, up 25.3%.

Particularly in the first few months of the year Chinese yards faced concerns over the impact of the US Trade Representative (USTR) Section 301 investigation into the dominance of Chinese shipbuilding, with orders picking up as the fee structure for China-built vessels was clarified.

Export ships accounted for 90.3%, 88.7%, and 92.9% of the national shipbuilding completion volume, new orders, and orders on-hand, respectively. The ship export value of China reached $40.14 billion.

From January to September, China’s three major shipbuilding indicators accounted for 53.8%, 67.3%, and 65.2% of the world’s total in deadweight tonnage, respectively.