🇨🇳 China Built 51% of the World's Merchant Ships in 2023

What We’re Showing

This chart breaks down the major players in shipbuilding, by the gross tonnage (GT) of merchant ships built in 2023.

Data is sourced from UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and excludes military vessels, yachts, fishing vessels, offshore platforms, and barges.

What is Gross Tonnage (GT)?

It measures the internal volume of a ship and is not related to the ship's weight, but rather its overall size and capacity.

A very large container ship with a capacity of around 20,250 TEU (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units) would have 220,000 GT.

Key Takeaways

• 🇨🇳 China built more than half of all the world’s merchant ships by gross tonnage (33M GT) in 2023. This translates into 150 of the world’s largest container ships.
• 🇰🇷 South Korea (18M GT) and 🇯🇵 Japan (10M GT) are also major players in the shipbuilding industry.