The record container ship newbuilding orderbook of over 10 million teu is dominated by three East Asian countries with China taking the lion’s share.

Chinese shipbuilders are building 7.36 million teu of that capacity a 73.7% share of the total orderbook. Trailing behind are Korea yards with 2.04 million teu, a 20.4% share, and Japanese yards with 430,000 teu, just 4.3% of the orderbook, according to Alphaliner in its weekly newsletter. Outside of yards in China, Korea, and Japan there are just 29 container ships on order in other countries around the globe.

The US has targeted Chinese dominance in global shipbuilding with the USTR section 301 investigation into the sector that resulted in additional port fees being charged for Chinese built ships calling the US from 14 October.

The rise of Chinese shipbuilders in the container ship sector in recent years is clearly illustrated by the contrast between the composition of the orderbook and the current fleet in terms of where the vessels are constructed.

Of the current box ship fleet 50.1% (16.4 million teu) of the vessels were built in Korea, while 29.4% (9.6 million teu) were constructed in China. A further 9.9% (3.2 million teu) were built in Japan, and 10.7% (3.5 million) in other countries.

Outside of the big three countries in East Asia other countries have effectively been squeezed out of the container ship construction market. Of the 29 box ships on order in other countries 16 are being built in Taiwan where CSBC remains a minor force in global shipbuilding.

There are four vessels ordered in Turkey, and three at yards in the US. 

“In many cases, there are specific reasons why these ships were ordered from yards outside the ’big 3’ shipbuilding nations: Turkey’s two largest vessels, ships of 4,012 teu, are being built at a yard that is a sister company of the ship owner and operator that contracted the pair. Orders in the US are clearly motivated by the Jones Act requirements that demand US-built tonnage for operations on domestic services, such as the lines to Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico,” Alphaliner commented.