In 2025, China retained its position as the world’s leading shipbuilder across three key indicators — production (ships delivered), new orders and order backlog — according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People’s Republic of China, as reported by the Experts Club information and analysis centre.
Below is the ranking of the largest shipbuilding nations for 2025 by each indicator (different sources use different units — deadweight tonnage (DWT or total cargo capacity of a vessel), compensated gross tonnage (CGT) and gross tonnage (GT), therefore the figures are compared primarily as shares and the ranking of countries) .
1) Output (ships delivered) in 2025, DWT — top by volume:
1. China — 53.69 million tonnes of deadweight, +11.4% y/y, 56.1% of global output.
2. South Korea – estimated based on market structure; according to Clarksons Research, South Korea’s share of production in 2025 is around 27%.
3. Japan – estimated; share around 14%.
For reference: based on China’s share, global output in 2025 can be estimated at approximately 95.7 million DWT (calculation based on a 56.1% share).
2) New orders in 2025 – top countries:
1. China – 35.37 million CGT, 63% of global new orders.
2. South Korea – 11.6 million CGT, around 21%.
3. Japan – 2.8 million CGT, around 5%.
4. Other countries – a total of around 6.7 million CGT (the remainder of the global volume of 56.43 million CGT).
3) Order book at the end of 2025, DWT – top countries:
1. China – 274.42 million DWT, +31.5% y/y, 66.8% of the global order book.
2. South Korea – 2nd place; industry reviews estimate Korea’s share of the orderbook at approximately 18%.
3. Japan – 3rd place; the Japanese orderbook is estimated at 40.7 million DWT.
