China remains world's leading shipbuilder in 2021

China's shipbuilding sector continued to take the lead globally last year, as busy maritime transport across the world pushed up ship demand, according to The Xinhua News Agency reports.

The country's shipbuilding output, an indicator reflecting the vitality of the sector, amounted to 39.7 mln deadweight tonnes (dwt) in 2021, rising 3% year on year, data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology showed.

The 2021 output accounted for 47.2% of the world's total, up 4.1 percentage points from that in 2020, the ministry said.

New shipbuilding orders, another major indicator of the shipbuilding industry, surged 131.8% year on year to 67.07 mln dwt in 2021, accounting for 53.8% of the global market share.

Holding order volumes came in at 95.84 mln dwt by the end of last December, rising 34.8% from the end of 2020 and taking up 47.6% of market share globally.

The ministry also said the international competitiveness of Chinese shipbuilding companies further enhanced in 2021, with six companies ranking among the world's top 10 shipbuilders in terms of output, new orders and holding orders, respectively.