China Dominates Global Shipbuilding As New Orders Decline in 2024

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Demand for new building slots remained robust in 2023 with Chinese shipbuilders now the dominant force. Newbuilding demand remained robust in 2023 and for the first nine months of the year with around 66 million gt booked at global shipyards. While the level was marginally down in 2022 at 9% lower Kent notes ordering was still very high, primarily driven by the container ship market, especially in the first part of the year, as well as gas carriers and car carriers, reports Seatrade Maritime.

China is the dominant force

MSI estimates that there are 102 million gt of ships on order at Chinese yards with Korean yards a “distant second”.

“But the difference with the Korean order book is it’s over half that Korean order book is being made up of gas carriers with a huge number of the LNG orders that we’ve seen over the last three years, ultimately ending up in Korea. Although the Chinese yards are starting to build more of gas carriers, it certainly remains the preserve of the Korean shipbuilding market,” he explains.

Japanese yards remain a factor in the global picture but only around 20% of the orderbook a currently seen at Chinese yards.

Newbuild order outlook

MSI expects the number of new orders in 2024 to come off the level seen in recent years.

“here’s a lot of tonnage on the order book, so, we expect to see certainly fewer container ships being ordered. I think we anticipate it as being towards the back end of the current ordering binge for the LNG sector. So, we’re not expecting those volumes to be the same in 2024, as we’ve seen in 2022 and 2023,” he says.

Looking at the dry bulk and tanker sector demand Kent explains: “We’re still seeing a lot of market participants in dry bulk and the tankers sector sit on the fence, and wait to see what happens with new technologies and with new green fuels before launching in and ordering new tonnage.”

Shipyard slot availability

In terms of placing new orders, MSI says that owners looking to place contracts at tier-one yards in China, Korea, or Japan would probably get the earliest delivery date in 2027.

If an owner is looking at ordering a standard design Capesize bulker, for example, Kent says that there is some availability still at second-tier Chinese yards with a 2026 delivery.

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Source: Seatrade Maritime

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