- China’s ship orders dip on US policy concerns
- Still leads global shipbuilding output and backlog
Mysteel Global: Chinese shipbuilders secured orders for new ships totalling 30-31 million deadweight tons (DWT) in the Q1CY’25 period of this year, lower by 11% from Q1CY’24, according to a recent release by the China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry (CANSI).
A market source attributed the on-year decline in new orders to the news that the United States plans to impose higher docking fees on vessels built in China starting from October. This potential cost increase may discourage international clients from choosing Chinese-built ships, raising concerns about order redirection to competing shipbuilding nations such as South Korea or Japan, as Mysteel Global has reported.
Meanwhile, Chinese shipyards completed vessels equivalent to 15 million DWT over Q1CY’25, down 8.4% y-o-y, according to CANSI.
Despite the headwinds, some industry experts remain cautiously optimistic that Chinese builders will survive the Trump administration’s campaign. One observer noted that while some orders may shift to South Korean shipyards, the volume is unlikely to be substantial.
“China still offer foreign shipping firms benefits from an efficient and integrated supply chain, low labor costs, and competitive domestic steel prices, which continue to provide the country with a competitive edge in the global shipbuilding arena,” he pointed out.
Notably, In Q1CY’25 China’s shipyards had a robust order backlog of 229-230 million DWT, jumping by 44% from end-April last year, the CANSI data showed.
China maintained its leadership in the world’s three key shipbuilding indicators in the past four months despite the setbacks, CANSI noted, with completion volume accounting for 50% of the global total, new orders accounting for 68% of global volume and orders on hand accounting for 64%.
Note: This article has been written in accordance with a content exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and BigMint.
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