Global newbuilding orders rose 66% year on year to 42.95 million CGT across 1,481 vessels in the first half of 2026, up from 25.90 million CGT and 1,101 vessels in the same period last year, according to Clarksons Research. On a compensated gross tonnage basis, Chinese yards secured 31.00 million CGT across 1,131 vessels — a 113% year-on-year increase and 72% of the global total, leaving South Korea, in second place with 19%, some 53 percentage points behind.
A dominance that goes beyond volume
The scale of China’s lead becomes sharper on a deadweight basis. Chinese shipyards booked a record 121.06 million dwt in new contracts over the six months, up 173.1% year on year and equivalent to 82.3% of global ordering by that measure — a total that already exceeds all of China’s newbuilding bookings for the whole of 2025.
What makes this cycle different from prior periods of Chinese shipbuilding strength is the composition of demand. Much of the surge has been driven by Greek shipowners, who invested roughly $23.4 billion in new tonnage in the first half — already surpassing their full-year 2025 total and returning Greece to the top spot among shipowning nations for newbuilding investment. That capital has flowed heavily into Chinese yards for tankers, bulk carriers, and feeder containerships, reinforcing a pattern TWJ has tracked through the year: China is no longer simply the low-cost, high-volume option, but increasingly the default choice across higher-value segments too, including LNG carriers, VLCCs, and dual-fuel boxships.
Backlog and delivery capacity
China’s shipbuilding output also grew, with the country’s yards accounting for 62% of global deliveries in the same period, and the global orderbook standing at over 206 million CGT by the end of June, with China holding roughly two-thirds of that backlog. The combination of order intake and delivery capacity leaves Chinese yards with visibility on production well into the back half of the decade — a planning advantage rivals in South Korea and Europe will find difficult to close in the near term.
South Korean yards are not standing still, having grown their own order volume 60% year on year, but the percentage-point gap between the two countries has actually widened rather than narrowed. What to watch is whether the current wave of Greek ordering — a swing factor behind this year’s numbers — sustains into 2027, or whether it proves to be a front-loaded response to newbuild pricing and slot availability rather than a durable shift in fleet renewal strategy.