China remained the world's leading shipbuilder in 2022, taking up nearly half of the international market share in terms of output, new and holding orders, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

The world's largest containership, HMM GDANSK, called at the port of Xiamen in east China's Fujian Province on July 7, 2020. (Photo provided by Xiamen Port Holding Group Co., Ltd.)

The country's shipbuilding output, though down 4.6 percent year on year, hit 37.86 million deadweight tonnage (dwt), accounting for 47.3 percent of the world's total, said the ministry.

New orders stood at 45.52 million dwt, accounting for 55.2 percent of the global market share, according to the MIIT.

China's shipbuilding holding orders totaled 105.57 million dwt by the end of December. The volume took up 49 percent of the market share globally, up over 10 percent from the same period last year.

The ministry said that six Chinese shipbuilders were ranked among the world's top 10 in terms of these three major indicators – output, new and holding orders.

In addition, according to data from the China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry, Chinese shipping companies undertook 55 orders for large LNG carriers in 2022, a record high at over 30 percent of the global total.