26 Chinese shipyards accept orders! Container ship new ship orders hit record high

The hot market in the container shipping market has led more and more shipowners to “rush in” to place orders for shipbuilding. This year, the new container shipbuilding market has also ushered in an unprecedented wave of orders. In the first nine months, orders for new container ships have The volume has reached a historical high in 14 years, and Chinese shipyards, which have received nearly 60% of orders, are undoubtedly the biggest winners in this wave of container ship orders.
Clarkson said in its latest report that container ship orders in the first three quarters reached 473 ships with approximately 3.9 million TEU, which has exceeded the previous annual order record in 2007 (3.4 million TEU). This is also the highest number of new container ship orders since Clarkson began collecting order data in 1996.
From a country perspective, among the top 10 shipyards in the world in receiving container ship orders, there are 7 Chinese shipyards and 3 Korean shipyards. The top 10 container shipyards received a total of 247 new ship orders in the first three quarters, approximately 2.95 million TEU. The number of ships and TEU accounted for 52.22% and 75.44% of the total container ship orders in the first three quarters respectively.
Data shows that in the first three quarters, 37 shipyards around the world received container ship orders, 26 of which were Chinese shipyards. In the first three quarters, Chinese shipyards received 305 container ship orders of 2.23 million TEU, accounting for 57.01% in terms of TEU. The top 10 Chinese shipyards with orders for new container ships are Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, Hudong-Zhonghua, Jiangnan Shipbuilding, DSIC, Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding, Yangzhou COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry, Guangzhou Shipbuilding International, CSSC Huangpu Wenchong, and Dalian COSCO Shipping Kawasaki, Nantong COSCO Shipping Kawasaki.
At the same time, container ship orders continue to grow. The proportion of order books in the existing fleet has risen sharply from 8% at the beginning of the fourth quarter of last year to 23%, which is the highest level since 2014, although it is still lower than in 2008. 60%.
Statistics show that the most popular this year is the 12,000-17,000TEU New Panamax container ship, and the number of orders held in this ship type field has reached 2.9 million TEU. Among the current handheld orders for container ships, ships of 12,000TEU and above account for as much as 75% (calculated in TEU), of which 12,000-17,000TEU ships account for 52%, and ships of 17,000TEU and above account for 23%. In addition, the demand for new shipbuilding of 7,000TEU container ships is picking up. This year, there have been orders for 51 7,000TEU ships. Currently, 3,000-8,000TEU container ships account for 13% of the total orders held. There is also strong demand for small container ships below 3,000 TEU, with a total of 270 orders currently on hand, approximately 500,000 TEU.
On the other hand, container ship owners ordering new ships have not yet reached a consensus on fuel and technology selection. Currently, 23% of container shippers ordered can operate using alternative fuels. The main alternative fuel is LNG, but there are also some new ships under construction that can use methanol power. For example, Maersk Line ordered 8 16,000TEU ships and 1 ship from South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries Group this year. All 2100TEU ships will be operated using methanol fuel.
This year’s record number of new ship orders will result in a significant increase in deliveries from 2023 to 2024. According to Clarksons, container ship deliveries are expected to be about 1 million TEU in 2022 and more than double to 2.2 million TEU in 2023, surpassing the high of 1.7 million TEU in 2015. At present, the delivery volume in 2024 is estimated to reach 1.9 million TEU, and this number will have further room for growth.