Where Data Tells the Story
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The global shipbuilding industry remains an overwhelmingly East Asian affair. In 2024 the world’s yards produced 71.69m gross tons of commercial vessels, and nearly all of it came from just three countries. China, South Korea and Japan together accounted for a staggering 95% of global output, a level of industrial concentration rare even by the standards of heavy manufacturing.
China comfortably retained its place as the world’s pre-eminent shipbuilder. Its yards delivered 39.1m GT, or 54.6% of global tonnage, more than South Korea and Japan combined. The scale is hard to overstate: China now turns out in a single year the equivalent mass of several hundred oil tankers, and has done so with increasing technical sophistication.
South Korea followed with 20.1m GT (28%), buoyed by demand for LNG carriers and other high-spec vessels in which Korean yards excel. Japan, once the industry’s undisputed leader, produced 9m GT (12.6%). Though long overshadowed by its neighbours, it continues to churn out complex ships with quiet efficiency.
Beyond this trio, global shipbuilding falls off sharply. Vietnam and the Philippines are the most substantial of the “next tier,” producing 721,000 GT and 668,000 GT respectively, impressive totals by regional standards, yet rounding errors on the global ledger. Europe’s traditional maritime countries, Italy, France and Germany now focus on cruise ships, naval vessels and other niche categories where craftsmanship, not volume, brings competitive advantage.
Smaller players such as Finland, the Netherlands and Norway survive by specialising in ferries, offshore vessels and ice-going ships. Others: Indonesia, India, Malaysia, supply modest but reliable output, largely for domestic fleets.
The most striking laggard is the United States. Despite its naval might, America’s commercial shipbuilding has shrivelled. In 2024 it produced a paltry 31,000 GT, a meagre 0.04% of global output. One large Chinese shipyard now builds more commercial tonnage in a single year than America’s entire commercial industry has managed since 1945.
High labour costs, antiquated yards and a tiny order book have left the U.S. shipbuilding sector structurally uncompetitive. Lacking scale, it has become a boutique industry in a world that rewards bulk.
The year’s figures underline a blunt truth: modern shipbuilding is dominated by those with the capacity to build quickly, cheaply and in vast quantities. China’s rise, South Korea’s engineering prowess and Japan’s persistence leave little room for others. For most countries, even rich ones, the era of large-scale shipbuilding has sailed.