Due to Trump's Shipbuilding Policy? South Korea's Market Share Increases While China's Orders Plummet

[Financial News] It has been revealed that China's new shipbuilding orders have significantly plummeted this year, leading to analyses that the shipbuilding policy of the U.S. Donald Trump administration is proving effective.
South Korea has seen its market share more than double, benefiting from the U.S.'s countermeasures against China's shipbuilding industry.
According to a recent mid-year report released by the British shipbuilding and shipping consulting firm Clarkson Research, China's new shipbuilding orders amounted to 26.3 million DWT (deadweight tonnage), a 68% decrease compared to the same period last year.
On the 13th, analysts in the related industry stated that the decrease in China's orders is partly due to a global demand decline but mainly because of the Trump administration's policies targeting China's shipbuilding industry.
This year, the Trump administration announced measures to revive the U.S. shipbuilding industry, aiming to prevent China's monopoly in shipbuilding.
In April, it was announced that high port entry fees would be imposed on ships made in China or belonging to Chinese shipping companies entering the U.S.
Additionally, high tariffs would be imposed on large equipment like cranes used in ports if they are made in China.
While the shipping industry is opposing such measures, Han Ning, director of the Singapore ship bidding platform SHIPBID, explained that China's market share in the ship repair sector is also beginning to decrease.
Recently, the Hong Kong English newspaper South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported in its analysis that while China's new orders in the first half of this year decreased significantly from 75% to 56%, South Korea's shipbuilding industry saw its order volume decrease by 7% to 14.2 million DWT, but its market share more than doubled from 14% to 30%.
According to SHIPBID, China's market share in the repair and maintenance of large tankers, which was about 70% from 2021 to 2024, fell to around 50% in the first half of this year.
Previously, China's shipbuilding industry had an overflow of orders when South Korean and Japanese shipyards were saturated, but recently, there has been a significant global decline in new orders.
Ralph Rachinski, director of the Singapore ship brokerage firm Vanchero Costa, explained that shipowners prefer ships built in South Korea or Japan, where it is easier to sell second-hand ships in the future.
SCMP reported that the U.S. shipbuilding revival policy is providing opportunities for South Korean shipbuilding companies like HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) and Hanwha Ocean.
Hanwha Ocean signed a ship maintenance contract with the U.S. Navy last year, and HHI signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for technical cooperation with Huntington Ingalls, the largest military shipbuilding company in the U.S., last April, indicating that cooperation between the shipbuilding industries of the two countries is deepening despite trade disputes.

jjyoon@fnnews.com Yoon Jae-jun Reporter