In 2024, the world economy maintained relatively stable growth with increasing economic growth differentiation among different economies. Energy prices and transportation costs have increased due to geopolitical conflicts such as the Red Sea, resulting in significant growth in the transportation market led by container ships. Key indicators of the shipbuilding industry remained on an upward trend. In terms of deadweight tonnage, global new ship orders increased by 65% year-on-year, and China’s share of global new ship orders has expanded to 75%. In the new ship orders, vessels utilizing alternative fuels account for 47%, container ships achieved a year-on-year increase of 121% (in terms of TEUs), oil tankers increased by 48.9%, bulk carriers increased by 22%, and Very Large Amonia Carriers (VLACs) increased by 79.3%. The global orderbook increased by 37.62% year-on-year, with a 2% increase for container ships, a 215% increase for oil tankers, and a 56% increase for bulk carriers. The shipbuilding industry is expected to continually grow in 2025, but with a decreased growth rate, and greening will still be the hot topics.

In 2023, the global economic growth rate slowed down from 3.5% in 2022 to 3.1%, but showing significant resilience with accelerating global economic growth differentiation among different economies. With the relaxation of global epidemic control and the increase of geopolitical conflicts, the commodity trade has been disturbed, and the seaborne trade is expected to grow by 2.4% in 2023. The market fundamentals of the shipbuilding industry are stable and positive. The key market indicators maintain growth with a year-on-year increase of 25% in new ship orders and a 12% increase in completed deliveries in terms of deadweight tonnage. Among them, new orders for oil tankers increased by 356.6% year-on-year, and new orders for bulk carriers increased by 33% year-on-year, but container ships and gas carriers fell back. Among the major shipbuilding countries, China’s shipbuilding industry stays ahead with new ship orders accounting for 68% of the global market share. The orders for dual-fuel vessels using alternative fuels continue to grow, accounting for 34% of global orders. The shipbuilding industry is expected to maintain an upward trend in 2024, especially for bulk carriers and oil tankers. The acceleration of the decarbonization process and the development of artificial intelligence technology will also bring opportunities and challenges to the high-quality development of the shipping industry.

Affected by factors such as monetary policy, geopolitical conflicts and the ongoing COVID-19, the macro-economy in 2022 showed a weakening trend after a brief economic recovery in 2021, and the pattern of maritime trade developed towards regionalization. As a result, the new shipbuilding market in 2022 showed an overall downward trend, with a year-on-year decline of 30.6%. Container ships, bulk carriers, oil tankers and offshore engineering vessels all showed downward trends, among them oil tankers showed the highest decline of 72.0%.Meanwhile, LNG carriers and Ro-Ro ships showed an upward trend, with an increase of 88.0% and 135.1%, respectively. Limited by the labor market and capacity adjustment of major shipbuilding domestic industries such as China and South Korea, the completion of shipbuilding in 2022 fell by 6.9% year-on-year. The orders at hand also decreased in 2022 with a decline of 7.5% year-on-year. Under the influence of environmental protection regulations, green fuel ships have developed rapidly, accounting for 44.5% of new ship orders, which becomes an important competitive area for shipbuilding countries. The global economic growth will continue to decline in 2023, which is expected to have a negative impact on the ship market. However, the high value-added ships such as LNG ships and green ships will continue to be popular. The global ship products will accelerate the development towards green and intelligent.