Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding (Group) Co Ltd, boasting the largest amount of liquefied natural gas carrier orders in terms of capacity among global shipyards, seeks to further consolidate its strength through doubling capacity and stable growth during the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) period, said its top executive.
The Shanghai-based shipyard’s total LNG shipbuilding orders in hand reached 57 units by the end of January, and the combined capacity of the vessels on order makes it the world’s largest order holder, accounting for 21.89 percent of the global market share, said Chen Jianliang, chairman of Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding, a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corp.
“In total, Hudong-Zhonghua’s orders in hand surpassed 150 billion yuan ($21.76 billion) in value as of the end of 2025,” said Chen.
Hudong-Zhonghua posted a 20 percent year-on-year increase in revenue last year, while its operating profit surged 380 percent over the same period. In 2025, the shipbuilder completed construction of 13 LNG ships and delivered 11.
Despite the strong performance, Chen said further efforts are needed, adding that the company will continue to focus on high-end shipbuilding in the coming years.
“Although China has retained its position as the world’s largest shipbuilding country for (more than) 15 years, the ranking is measured in terms of dead-weight tonnage. In fact, the high-end shipbuilding segment remains dominated by South Korea, and cruise ships are primarily built by Western European countries,” Chen said during a recent forum held by Fudan University’s School of Management.
The Chinese shipbuilding sector maintained its leading position in all three key indicators of output, new orders and holding orders in 2025, marking the 16th consecutive year it has held this position, according to the latest data published by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in February.
Specifically, Chinese shipbuilders completed construction of 56.1 percent of global orders in 2025, received 69 percent of the new orders and accounted for 66.8 percent of the world’s vessel orders in hand as of the end of last year.
“Chinese shipyards will continue to advance high-quality development, seek deep integration into the global industrial value chain, and work together to build a green and intelligent industrial pattern,” Li Yanqing, secretary-general of the Beijing-based China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry, told China Central Television of CMG.
Hudong-Zhonghua is one of the Chinese shipbuilders spearheading a push toward high-quality development. The Shanghai-based shipyard has put its focus on the research, development and construction of ultra large container vessels and LNG carriers.
The company started to build the first ultra-large dual-powered containership in 2018 for French shipping major CMA CGM Group, which required a vessel capacity of 23,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent unit). As of 2025, Chinese shipbuilders held 80 percent of the global market share in terms of order volume, according to Chen.
The challenges in developing LNG carriers are even greater. It took the shipyard four years, from receiving its first six ship orders in 2004 to delivering the first vessel in 2008.
“A total of 38 months were spent constructing the first LNG ship from scratch, in stark contrast to the current construction period, which has been reduced to a minimum of 16 months. It took us decades to reach our current position in LNG shipbuilding,”Chen said, adding the shipbuilder to date has delivered 60 units of large LNG vessels.
An LNG carrier is a tank ship designed for transporting liquefied natural gas. Due to the special characteristics of natural gas, shipping the energy in liquefied state, or at temperatures of below — 163 C, would be most cost-efficient. Each LNG carrier can carry 174,000 cubic meters of liquefied natural gas, or about 105 million cubic meters after gasifying, which can be used for everyday life by a city with a population of between 3 million and 4 million for a month.
