China has overtaken the whole world in shipbuilding

Hello ATS!



China now builds more seagoing vessels than the rest of the world combined (in terms of total tonnage) – 51%. Another 26% comes from South Korea, 14% from Japan. It will not be easy for Western countries to maintain their dominance in maritime trade. The era of Western maritime dominance may be fading into history.

China's shipbuilding volumes have surpassed all other countries in the world combined.

The PRC's main competition is in the sectors of high-end LNG carriers and cruise ships.

Against this backdrop, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) announced that it will investigate Beijing's "unfair, non-market policies and practices" in the maritime, logistics and shipbuilding sectors that are harming the US shipping industry.

The investigation was initiated by five major US unions in these Chinese sectors, which allegedly "disrupt supply chains and undermine vital national security interests."

To put things into perspective, Beijing spent $132 billion on shipping and shipbuilding between 2010 and 2018, according to a report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

As a result, already in 2022 there were almost 1,800 commercial vessels under construction. By comparison, there were only five in the United States. China, Korea and Japan account for more than 90% of the world's tonnage, while the United States accounts for just 0.2%, according to the Congressional Research Service.

In Russia, by the way, shipbuilding is also actively developing. It developed rapidly until 2022, and after the start of the Special Operation, the need for vessels and ships grew even more.

By the way, the American publication Navalnews claims that China has built and is now secretly testing the world’s first combat drone carrier.



Judging by satellite images, the secret aircraft carrier is hiding in a shipyard on the Yangtze River, far from Shanghai's main shipyards. This is the fourth aircraft carrier of the Chinese Navy and the only one whose existence has not been officially confirmed. It was built in 2022 and China still manages to hide any information about it. Most likely, it will be used for experimental and educational purposes.

The new aircraft carrier is different from the three previous ones that are part of the Chinese navy. And the point is not in size, but in the fact that this is the world’s first ship designed to host and launch UAVs. At least, the American publication Naval News is sure of this.

It is smaller in size than a conventional aircraft carrier. The flight deck is about two-thirds shorter and half narrower than the largest examples of these warships. The outdated straight flight deck design does not allow for simultaneous launch and landing of vehicles, but is suitable for take-off of fixed-wing UAVs. It can comfortably accommodate UAVs or other aircraft with a wingspan of up to 20 m. And its very presence suggests that drones must not only take off, but also return to the ship.

The hull of the secret ship is also unusual - it is a wide catamaran. They are found in conceptual designs of aircraft carriers, but so far no one has dared to build them. Analysis of satellite images showed that the flight deck is very low. Most likely, there are either no hangars under it, or they have very low ceilings.

From this, analysts of the American publication conclude that the ship is not intended for long-term military operations. In addition, the same shipyard has already built several high-tech barges and two large aircraft carriers for UAVs.

Interesting news.

Thank you.

a reply to: RussianTroll

Maybe they could build Russia an aircraft carrier since you cannot manage the task?

a reply to: RussianTroll

I get a kick out of statements like this...

Against this backdrop, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) announced that it will investigate Beijing's "unfair, non-market policies and practices" in the maritime, logistics and shipbuilding sectors that are harming the US shipping industry.

Like, what are they going to do about it?? Cry and stomp their feet?

There's an old joke about two shops selling eggs. One shop has a sign in the window "Eggs $2 per doz." The other shop has a sign in their window "Eggs $1 per doz." So, the fellow picking up eggs on his way home from work goes in the shop that has the $1 eggs. The clerk says they're all out of eggs. So, the fellow goes to the other shop and asks for a dozen eggs. When the clerk puts the eggs down on the counter the customer says..."The shop across the street is selling eggs for only $1, but they're all out of eggs. Why are your eggs $2 dollars?" The clerk responds..."OH! Yeah, well, when we're out of eggs, we put a sign in our window that says "Eggs $0.50 cents per dozen" !!"

The difference today, with this story is, it's the shop with $1 dollar eggs who has eggs to sell, and the shop with $2 dollar eggs has none. And the reason for this is because consumers are smart enough to realize that the eggs from the $1 dollar store are 50% the cost of the competition's eggs. China sells ships for $1 dollars and the US sells ships for $2 dollars. China has ships to sell, and the US has none. Not too hard to do the math here.

(knock, knock...labor unions...wake up!!)

This is the natural evolution of what started in the early 1970s, when Asian shipbuilders started building and repairing large ships at lower prices than the Western competition.

Where I live, Almada, we had one of the biggest and best shipbuilding yards in Europe, from a company called Lisnave, and, at the time, it had the biggest dry dock in the world, but the 1970s oil crisis stopped the tendency of increasingly bigger tankers and the competition from Asian builders (South Korea and Japan) brought a crisis for the large Western shipbuilders and they had to reduce their size and work in more specialized areas.

That large shipbuilding yard has been abandoned since it was closed, on December 31, 2000.

PS: although I used the word "shipbuilding" it was only used for repairs and alterations, specializing in increasing the size of the ships by adding a middle section that was welded in place.