The China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products has released its foreign trade report for the first half of 2026 covering the vessel and offshore engineering sector. During this period, China's exports in this category continued their upward momentum, with cumulative shipments of ships and offshore equipment reaching $32.71 billion, a 23.1% increase compared with the same period last year.
The top five export vessel types were oil tankers, bulk carriers, container ships, liquefied gas and other liquid cargo vessels, and other cargo and mixed-purpose carriers, with export values of $7.7 billion, $7.05 billion, $4.8 billion, $4.33 billion, and $3.15 billion respectively. Combined, these categories accounted for 82.7% of China's total vessel and offshore equipment exports.
High-value liquid cargo vessel orders and faster deliveries drive growth
The realization of high-priced orders for liquid cargo carriers, combined with accelerated delivery schedules, served as the primary growth driver in the first half of the year. Exports of oil tankers and liquefied gas carriers surged 193% and 186% year-on-year respectively, totaling roughly $12 billion. These vessels represented about 37% of total export value and contributed approximately $7.9 billion in incremental gains, making them the absolute mainstay of export growth. Oil tanker shipments reached 169 units, up 78%, with average unit prices rising 65%. Liquefied gas carrier exports hit 70 units, up 71%, with average unit prices climbing 67.5%, reflecting a clear pattern of simultaneous volume and price growth. This explosive expansion stems primarily from the concentrated delivery period of high-value orders locked in during 2023-2024, including VLCCs, large LNG carriers, and dual-fuel product tankers, alongside improvements in shipyard construction efficiency. Leading shipyards such as Jiangnan Shipyard, Hudong-Zhonghua, Hengli Heavy Industry, Beihai Shipbuilding, and Guangzhou Shipyard International all delivered high-value liquid cargo vessels several months ahead of schedule during the period.
Bulk carrier exports see stable volumes and rising prices
Bulk carrier exports reached $7.05 billion in the first half of 2026, up 40.6% year-on-year, providing important support for overall export growth. Among these, bulk carriers of 150,000 deadweight tonnes (DWT) or less saw 249 units exported, generating approximately $6.3 billion, a 43.3% increase, with volumes nearly flat versus last year but average unit prices jumping 42.7%. For bulk carriers in the 150,000-300,000 DWT range, nine units were exported—matching last year's figure—yielding $650 million in export value with a modest 4.2% unit price increase. One bulk carrier above 300,000 DWT was exported at a value of approximately $110 million. The rapid growth in bulk carrier exports also benefits from the concentrated realization of high-priced orders placed around 2024. Additionally, the share of high-value-added vessel types within the small-to-medium bulk carrier export mix has risen significantly. Exports of the main high-value models—Panamax vessels (60,000-80,000 DWT) and Ultramax vessels (61,000-64,500 DWT), both priced above $35 million per unit—jumped from 10 units in the same period of 2025 to 67 units, strongly lifting the average export price for bulk carriers.
Container ship deliveries continue to decline, falling to third place
Container ship exports reached $4.795 billion in the first half of 2026, down 26.4% year-on-year, ranking third among all exported vessel types. In volume terms, 60 container ships were delivered during the period, a 33.3% decrease. According to data from the Shanghai International Shipping Institute, global new container ship deliveries totaled 98 vessels or 707,000 TEU in the first half, down sharply by 39.1% year-on-year. The global delivery pace for new container ships continues to ease from the 2024 peak, and China's full-year container ship export value is expected to decline further compared with 2025.
Offshore engineering equipment and vessels retreat from peak levels
After two consecutive years of rapid growth in 2024 and 2025, when offshore equipment and vessel exports reached a record $13.551 billion in 2025—including a 119% year-on-year surge in H1 2025—the segment experienced a high-base correction in the first half of 2026. Exports fell 55% year-on-year to $1.9 billion. Beyond the elevated comparison base, geopolitical factors during the period extended project investment timelines for overseas oil and gas companies, significantly impacting project schedules and delivery progress. Nevertheless, China's current order book for offshore equipment remains robust, and some projects may gradually resume deliveries in the second half. Even so, full-year export value will likely still show a decline.
Ro-ro ship deliveries ease from peak while new demand generates fresh orders
Ro-ro vessel exports totaled $2.25 billion in the first half of 2026, down 18.7% year-on-year. Since 2021, China's rapidly growing automobile exports fueled a global surge in ro-ro vessel orders during 2021-2024. These orders entered concentrated delivery from 2024 onward, driving two consecutive years of explosive export growth—2025 export value reached $5.83 billion, roughly seven times the 2023 level. Based on order book delivery schedules, 2026 ro-ro export volumes will likely fall below the 2025 delivery peak. Customs data shows that China's complete vehicle exports reached 5.0304 million units in the first half of 2026, up 54.5% year-on-year, with correspondingly rising demand for ro-ro transport, which is again pushing global new ro-ro orders higher.
Other major countries' vessel and offshore export performance
In South Korea, vessel and offshore equipment exports totaled $15.61 billion in the first half of 2026, up 20.2% year-on-year. Liquid cargo vessels led with $10.47 billion, a 102.6% increase, representing 67.1% of the total and serving as the country's dominant export category. Cargo vessels, primarily container ships, generated $4.14 billion, down 40.7%, accounting for 26.5%. Floating or submersible production platforms contributed $750 million, or 4.8%.
Japan's vessel and offshore equipment exports reached $6.03 billion in the first half of 2026, up 6.6% year-on-year. Cargo vessels, dominated by bulk carriers, accounted for $4.23 billion, down 5.9%, representing 70.1% of the total. Liquid cargo vessels generated $1.59 billion, up 59.3%, comprising 26.4%.
Italy exported vessels worth $4.79 billion in the first half of 2026, down 22.3% year-on-year. Ocean-going cruise and excursion vessels (large cruise ships) accounted for $2.5 billion, down 15.7%, representing 52.3% of the total, with primary destinations in the United States and Switzerland. Pleasure or sports motorboats generated $2.19 billion, down 17.3%, comprising 45.7%. Germany exported vessels worth $3.49 billion in the first five months of 2026, up 120.4% year-on-year. Pleasure or sports motorboats surged nearly 13-fold to $3.02 billion, representing 86.3% of the total, while passenger or cargo vessels including cruise and excursion ships generated $230 million, or 6.7%.
India exported vessels worth $3.54 billion in the first half of 2026, up 89.3% year-on-year. Liquid cargo vessels led with $1.63 billion, up 197%, representing 46.1%. Dredgers contributed $570 million, up 115%, comprising 16%, while other vessels (including lifeboats but excluding rowboats) generated $560 million, up 23.2%, representing 15.7%. Turkey exported vessels worth $2.03 billion in the first half of 2026, up 69.4% year-on-year. Main export categories included passenger or cargo vessels such as cruise ships, excursion vessels, and cargo ships, as well as vessels and floating structures, and pleasure or sports motorboats.
Global ship trade remains buoyant as China consolidates its leading position
According to Clarksons Research, global new ship orders reached 1,481 vessels in the first half of 2026, with total order value of $132.6 billion, approaching the highest half-year level in history. Within this order wave, China led decisively across all three key metrics, further cementing its industrial dominance.
New orders secured by Chinese shipyards totaled 121.06 million DWT in the first half, up 173.1% year-on-year and representing 82.3% of the global total—surpassing the previous full-year order peak, with export vessels accounting for 93.4%. For the three mainstream vessel types—bulk carriers, container ships, and oil tankers—China's market share of new orders exceeded 80% in each category. Alongside the volume surge, order quality has improved markedly: high-value-added LNG carrier orders have grown in both scale and share, with international competitiveness strengthening and increasingly challenging South Korean shipyards' long-standing dominance in the global LNG carrier market. New green vessel orders accounted for over 68% of the international market, sustaining China's leadership in the green shipbuilding segment.
As of the end of June, China's shipbuilding order book stood at 363.25 million DWT, up 54.9% year-on-year and representing 71.2% of the global total, with export vessels comprising 92.1%. Domestic shipyards generally hold order books covering the next three to four years of capacity, providing strong earnings visibility. As high-value-added vessel types—including LNG carriers, ultra-large container ships, and green dual-fuel vessels—enter concentrated delivery periods, average export prices per vessel are likely to continue rising, expanding both trade revenue and scale.
Shipbuilding output reached 36.5 million DWT in the first half, up 51.2% year-on-year and representing 62.2% of the global total, with export vessels accounting for 94%. Against a backdrop of high order book levels, this rapid growth in completed tonnage directly reflects Chinese shipyards' improving capacity and construction efficiency, supporting stable and efficient order delivery. It also demonstrates the comprehensive competitiveness of China's shipbuilding industry, enhancing international shipowners' confidence and supporting further gains in global new order market share.
Industrial and trade policy directions in other major shipbuilding nations
South Korea continues to anchor its competitive advantage in core technologies while systematically building a global industrial network. The government maintains strong support for core technology R&D, smart shipyard construction, and talent development, explicitly prioritizing seven future core vessel technologies including LNG carriers, ammonia carriers, hydrogen carriers, and liquefied CO2 carriers. To safeguard energy security and industrial chain autonomy, plans are underway to invest 300 billion KRW in nurturing domestic offshore wind projects. A "Korean ships, Korean built" approach aims to promote localized supply of core transport capacity for basic resources and energy. Globally, South Korea is strengthening technology exports to Southeast Asian nations including Vietnam, the Philippines, and Indonesia, as well as India and Saudi Arabia. Through the Korea-US Shipbuilding Cooperation Center, it is embedding deeply into the US military and commercial shipbuilding supply chain, while also positioning new strategic footholds such as Morocco to serve European, African, and American markets across vessel construction, repair, and fleet support operations.
Japan is pushing to revitalize domestic production capacity with a core goal of "Japanese ships, Japanese built." Japanese shipbuilding capacity has declined steadily from 16 million gross tonnes in 2019 to 9 million gross tonnes in 2024, leaving domestic supply unable to fully cover domestic shipowner demand. To reverse this trend, the government plans to combine "domestic cluster rebuilding" with "corporate horizontal integration," investing 1 trillion yen through public-private partnerships to double capacity to 18 million gross tonnes by 2035. Additionally, "Japanese ships, Japanese built" has been written into Japan's Growth Strategy, aiming to revive the domestic shipbuilding industry while ensuring secure and autonomous maritime transport chains. However, Japan's recent order intake has focused on conventional vessel types such as bulk carriers, and construction of high-end LNG carriers—critical for energy transport—has been discontinued, potentially requiring the introduction of external key technologies to restart domestic high-end manufacturing capability.
Europe is consolidating its global leadership in key technologies while strengthening industrial resilience through internal coordination. The EU views its global leadership in cruise ships and other high-end vessel types as critical to driving complex manufacturing capabilities across other shipbuilding segments. The EU Maritime Industrial Strategy proposes establishing an "EU Industrial Maritime Value Chain Alliance" to strengthen European industrial autonomy and technological leadership in maritime manufacturing and emerging technologies. A "Shipyard of the Future" R&D and innovation program will support digitalization, decarbonization, and circular transformation of European shipyards. The strategy also calls for coordinating multi-year public orders across the EU/EEA to anchor industrial resilience through stable demand expectations. On trade policy, monitoring mechanisms will be established with the option of industry-specific trade measures when necessary, alongside EU-level export credit financing instruments to support shipyards, equipment manufacturers, and service providers in third-country markets.
The United States is actively repairing production capacity through capital leverage and "friend-shoring" cooperation. The US government's Maritime Action Plan outlines four pillars: rebuilding shipbuilding capacity, workforce training reform, protecting the maritime industrial base, and securing national security, economic security, and industrial resilience—with capacity rebuilding at the core. On the capital side, alongside optimizing and expanding existing funding programs, new infrastructure investment funds for shipyards and a "Maritime Security Trust Fund" have been established to support capacity repair. As an implementation pathway, the US has proposed a "bridge strategy" using mature shipbuilding capabilities of allies such as South Korea as transitional support, employing multi-ship procurement contracts that allow initial vessels to be built by allied shipyards in their home facilities, while requiring direct investment in and technology cooperation with US shipyards to ultimately achieve domestic construction.
Outlook and recommendations
Overall, the shipbuilding industry is currently in a super-cycle, with Chinese shipyards holding full order books for the next three to four years and extremely high certainty of earnings growth. However, the higher order levels and tighter capacity become, the greater the need to guard against the convergence of various risks. Shipyards should focus on the following defense lines:
First, strictly control delivery and performance risks. The current full order book places higher demands on production resilience. Given tight schedules and dense delivery milestones, attention must be paid to quality fluctuations arising from extreme weather disruptions and high-intensity technical workforce operations. It is recommended that production schedule management be optimized, extreme weather emergency response mechanisms improved, and whole-process quality control systems strengthened, firmly rejecting any compromise on process standards to meet deadlines while upholding the bottom line of "delivering ships on time and delivering quality ships."
Second, guard against exchange rate and cost risks. Shipbuilding involves long construction cycles and high capital intensity, making it significantly susceptible to foreign exchange fluctuations and commodity price volatility. Given the long-cycle, fixed-price nature of orders, shipyards should establish regular monitoring mechanisms, leverage professional institutions, and employ a combination of forward exchange settlement, option structures, and futures hedging to develop tailored risk mitigation plans—strictly avoiding speculative transactions and adhering to the principle of "hedging without speculation."
Third, mitigate production and compliance risks. Given the current high-capacity operating environment and intensifying rule-based competition, priority should be placed on preventing safety hazards in high-risk operations and compliance risks related to international sanctions and carbon tariffs. On one hand, a robust work safety responsibility system should be established, with full-process management of high-risk operations and routine hazard investigation mechanisms. On the other, a dynamic compliance framework should be built to adapt to international maritime and regional regulatory requirements, upholding the dual bottom lines of safety and compliance.