The Chinese shipbuilding manufacture declassifies competition: Over 90% of global superfuel orders

chiny24.com 1 week ago

The Chinese shipbuilding manufacture strengthens its position of undisputed global leader in the strategical section of superlarge oil tankers (VLCC – Very Large Crude Carriers). According to the latest marketplace data from the first half of 2026, China has since the beginning of the year taken over over 90% of fresh orders for these giant units in the world, leaving far behind conventional rivals from South Korea and Japan.

Monopoly in the VLCC segment

China's dominance in the construction of VLCC tankers has reached a level unprecedented in manufacture history. In the first 4th of 2026 alone, Chinese shipyards secured orders for 67 VLCC units with a full capacity of 20.64 million tonnes (DWT), which represented 92% of the global marketplace during that period. In turn, in the first 4 months of the year, 98 of the world's ordered super tankers, as many as 89 fell to shipyards in China. In comparison, the combined share of nipponese and South Korean shipyards fell below 10%.

Market indicator VLCC (Q1-Q2 2026)	Result of Chinese shipyards
Participation in global procurement (January-April)	> 90% (89 of 98 units ordered)
Participation in global procurement (Q1)	92% (67 units)
Total burden capacity of VLCC orders in Q1	20.64 million DWT
Production schedule	Secured until 2030

Source: regular economical News and Hellenic Shipping News

The undisputed leader in this niche is CSSC Dalian Shipbuilding manufacture Co. (DSIC). The shipyards of this company are presently working in parallel on 2 units with a burden capacity of 300,000 tonnes each. These giant ships are able to burden more than 2 million barrels of oil at once. Thanks to the powerful scale effect, the cost of transporting a single barrel is more than 40% lower than utilizing tiny and medium-sized tankers, making it highly desirable by global shipowners.

According to Peng Guisheng, manager of Marketing at CSSC Dalian Shipbuilding, the oil tanker marketplace is presently experiencing a sharp increase. Only this year, his company signed tanker contracts with a full capacity of over 6 million DWT, and in 2026, as many as 42 fresh units are planned to begin construction.

Geopolitics and the crisis in the Ormuz Strait fuel demand

The detonation of orders on a superfuel is not accidental. As analysts emphasize, it coincides with the increasing geopolitical tensions in the mediate East. Interferences at key hubs stifling global trade, specified as the Strait of Ormuz, force shipowners to grow fleets and search for alternative, frequently longer transport routes.

“The convergence of geopolitical tensions and regulatory adjustments strengthens the structural request for ships for energy transport in regions covering the mediate East, Europe, North America and parts of Asia, and China emerges as the main beneficiary of this change,” explains Liu Ying, a investigator from the Chongyang Financial investigation Institute at Renmin University in Beijing.

Liu Wei, manager of 1 of the shipyards in Ningbo, notes a clear change in client preferences. While in 2025 most of the orders were container ships, in 2026 almost half of the ongoing negotiations concern oil tankers.

Technological advantage and green transformation

The Chinese companies no longer compete solely for the price. They reached a global level in the plan and construction of tankers, offering unparalleled transportation times. An excellent example is the transfer on May 20, 2026 of a 115,000 tons tanker by CSSC Dalian Shipbuilding – the ship was delivered to the shipowner until 164 days before the contracted date. specified efficiency is hard to accomplish for those facing capacity constraints in South Korea and Japan.

Moreover, Chinese shipyards are pioneers in the decarbonisation of maritime transport. CSSC Dalian supplied COSCO in 2022 with the “Yuan Rui Yang” ship – the world's first VLCC powered by liquefied natural gas. This unit, equipped with a dual-fuel engine, is characterized by an EEDI energy efficiency index of 39.3% better than the baseline value. The shipyards are presently investing in the improvement of ammonia and methanol powered units, which are expected to debut on a large scale by 2028.

16 years of continuous dominance

The success in the VLCC section reflects the power of the full Chinese shipbuilding industry. According to the Ministry of manufacture and Information Technology (MIIT), in the first 4th of 2026 Chinese shipyards took over 84.9% of global fresh orders (59.53 million DWT, an increase of 195.2% year-on-year).

China holds the world's first place in 3 key manufacture indicators (completed units, fresh contracts, order book) continuously for 16 years. In addition, with 18 major types of merchant ships worldwide, China has a leading position in terms of the number of orders in as many as 15 categories, achieving a monopolistic position not only in the case of the VLCC, but besides in the case of large container ships and LNG.

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Author: 梁安基 Andrzej Z. Liang, 上海 Shanghai, 中国 China

Email: [email protected]

Editorial: Leszek B.

Email: [email protected]

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