China's shipbuilding sector continues to lead in world market

China remained the world's leading shipbuilder in the first quarter of the year, taking up nearly half of the international market share in terms of output and new and holding orders, data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology showed. This was reported by The Xinhua News Agency.

The country's shipbuilding output hit 9.61 mln deadweight tonnes in the period, accounting for 46.2% of the world's total, up 2.8 percentage points year on year, according to the ministry.

New orders, another major indicator of the shipbuilding industry, stood at 9.93 mln deadweight tonnes, with the global market share up 1.2 percentage points year on year to 48.6%.

China's shipbuilding holding orders totaled 99.1 mln deadweight tonnes at the end of March. The volume took up 47.3% of the market share globally, up 2.7 percentage points from the same period last year.