A view of a shipyard of Jiangsu New Yangzi Shipbuilding Co in Taizhou, East China's Jiangsu Province, on April 6, 2026. Photo: VCG

China's shipbuilding industry posted strong growth in the first half of 2026, maintaining a leading share of the global ship market, data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) showed on Thursday.

From January to June, the country's shipbuilding output reached 36.50 million deadweight tons (DWT), up 51.2 percent year-on-year and accounting for 62.2 percent of the global total, the data showed.

New orders totaled 121.06 million DWT during the period, surging 173.1 percent from a year earlier, accounting for a staggering 82.3 percent of the global market.

As of the end of June, the sector's holding orders stood at 363.25 million DWT, up 54.9 percent year-on-year. This volume accounted for 71.2 percent of the global total. 

Global Times