Shipbuilding orders collapse in China
New ship orders at Chinese shipyards fell by 68% year-on-year in the first half of 2025. Donald Trump's restrictive policies explain this decline, which primarily benefits the other leader in the sector, South Korea.
The drop is precipitous. “By far the world's largest shipbuilder for years, China has seen new orders for its shipyards plummet by 68% year-on-year, to 26.3 million deadweight tons in the first half of 2025,” reports the South China Morning Post ( SCMP ). A ship's deadweight tonnage represents the maximum load it can carry.
“The decline is mainly due to concerns among shipowners around the world about US measures targeting the Chinese shipbuilding industry and their planned attempts to adapt,” said Han Ning, who heads the Asian branch of ShipBid, a ship tendering platform.
Shortly after his inauguration, Donald Trump announced a series of measures targeting Chinese shipbuilders, in his bid to revitalize American shipyards. Civil shipbuilding was abandoned in the United States in the 1980s, while Asian players gradually cornered the market: first Japan, then South Korea, and, for the past fifteen years, China.
In April, the United States announced it would impose a call fee at American ports on any ship owned, operated, or built by a Chinese actor – initially estimated at $1.5 million (€1.3 million) per port call, this figure was kept secret after strong protests from American shipping executives.
But Trump's ambitions could be thwarted by Seoul, the other market leader, the SCMP points out: "The US's desire to revive its shipbuilding industry is widely seen as an opportunity for South Korea. With the US having almost no domestic capabilities, it is the main Korean shipbuilders that are expanding there."
It's a game of communicating vessels of the most basic kind: according to the daily's calculations, while China's share of global orders fell from 75% last year to 56% in the first half of 2025, South Korea's share rose from 14% to 30%. With 14.2 million deadweight tons, Korea is hot on China's heels—but US industry isn't taking off.
This will delight the newly elected South Korean president, Lee Jae-myung , who has pledged to make South Korea “a maritime power that leads the world, relying in particular on shipbuilding” .
Courrier International
