SIMIC

During the first six months of this year both the shipbuilding volume and the orders in hand of Chinese yards declined.

According to the statistics released by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in the first half of 2020, the nation’s shipbuilding output was 17.58m dwt, a decline of 10.6% year-on-year.

Related: Chinese shipbuilding output declined 20% in Jan-May

The orderbook in hand was 76.54m dwt, a drop of 6.3% year-on-year while the newly received order volume was 12.47m dwt, an increase of 3.4% year-on-year.

Chinese shipyards had an extended shutdown following Chinese New Year at the end of January due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but operations returned largely to normal in the second quarter.

Related: The outlook for Chinese shipbuilding

China's shipbuilding industry maintained its leading position globally in H1 and its shipbuilding output, newly received orders and orders in hand were 37.2%, 67.5% and 48.2% respectively of global shipbuilding market share.

In H1, the concentration ratio of three major shipbuilding indexes from ten leading Chinese shipyards was increasing, an outcome of shipbuilding industry consolidation in China.