Chinese shipping companies and ship owners continue to place newbuildings with state support. Billions are at stake. One of the names with the largest activities is the Cosco Group.
However, in terms of the value of newbuildings, there is another name at the top. Newbuild prices are at their highest level since 2009 due to high steel prices, lack of availability of shipyards and demand. The imbalance between supply and demand caused by the Red Sea crisis has improved sentiment and expectations of high profits. This prompted owners to place orders in the container, tanker and LNG sectors.
Among the leading Chinese companies that ordered ships last year, China Merchants Shipping is in first place with contracts for 28 newbuildings worth $4.4 billion. At least that is what the industry service VesselsValue has calculated.
These investments are mainly in the tanker and liquefied natural gas sectors, which each account for around 33%, but new orders were also placed for bulk carriers and vehicle carriers.
In second place, with expenditure of USD 3.06 billion, is Cosco Shipping Lines with 18 orders for new Panamax container ships of between 13,400 and 14,000 TEU.
In third place is another Cosco name: Cosco Shipping Development, which last year ordered 20 bulkers from the Ultramax to the Kamsarmax segment worth $929 million.
In fourth place: Cosco again: it’s subsidiary Cosco Shipping Bulk, which is spending $822m on 10 new vessels, including 8x Newcastlemax and 2x ore carriers, to be delivered between 2026 and 2028.
In fifth place is China Shipbuilding Trading, which placed 22 new orders worth $778 million last year, including a total order for 22 Panamax newbuildings with a deadweight tonnage of 80,000 DWT to be built by Chengxi Shipbuilding and delivered between 2027 and 2028.
The shipping company Seacon Shipping is also explicitly mentioned. It has 26 new orders, consisting mainly of tanker newbuilding projects worth USD 738 million. In terms of the number of ships, Seacon is even in second place.
Tankers ahead of bulkers ahead of containers
Tankers were the most popular ship type ordered by Chinese shipyards in 2024: 526 new ships worth $27.4 billion. The bulker sector was in second place with 430 newly ordered ships worth USD 17.7 billion. In third place was the container sector with 298 new orders. However, at $46 billion, the value of these orders far exceeds all other sectors; this is due to the fact that the values for this sector increased significantly in all sub-sectors and size classes last year.
However, according to VesselsValue, container newbuildings rose the least, making them attractive investments despite the time lag. For example, values for post-Panamax newbuildings of 7,000 TEU increased by approximately 14.45% from $101.99 million to $116.73 million. In contrast, 20-year post-Panamax vessels actually rose by around 114.99% year-on-year, from $20.62 million to $44.33 million.