Benefiting from the high prosperity of the industry and the dividends from restructuring and integration, in 2025, China State Shipbuilding Corporation (hereinafter referred to as “China Shipbuilding”) (600150.SH) achieved operating income of 151.978 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.97%, and net profit attributable to the parent company increased by 86.00% year-on-year.
From January to March 2026, China’s shipping net profit increased by 251.64% year-on-year, and profitability continued to increase.
Under the high prosperity of the shipbuilding industry, China has sufficient ship orders and full production capacity.
On April 30, relevant experts from Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding (Group) Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corporation, said that the company currently has orders for more than 50 LNG carriers, and orders for container ships have also exceeded 50, and the production cycle has been scheduled to 2028 to 2029.
In September 2025, China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation and China National Heavy Industry Co., Ltd. completed “the largest merger in the history of A-shares.”
After the reorganization and integration, China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation has become a flagship listed shipbuilding company that controls 7 key shipyards and 15 supporting companies. It leads the world in asset scale, revenue scale, and number of orders on hand.
On the evening of April 29, China Shipping disclosed that in 2025, the company achieved operating income of 151.978 billion yuan, exceeding the annual plan by 8.17%, a year-on-year increase of 13.97%; the main business income for the year was 149.896 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.98%; the main business gross profit margin was 12.27%, a year-on-year increase of 2.21 percentage points.
In terms of business segments, the revenue from shipbuilding, repair and marine engineering business was 131.279 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.71%; the gross profit margin was 11.72%, a year-on-year increase of 2.94 percentage points; the ship supporting, mechanical and electrical equipment and other businesses achieved operating income of 18.617 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.09%; the gross profit margin was 16.15%, a year-on-year decrease of 2.49 percentage points.
In terms of regional markets, domestic and foreign markets achieved revenue of 81.003 billion yuan and 68.893 billion yuan respectively, a year-on-year increase of 11.18% and 17.46% respectively.
As for the reasons for the performance growth, China State Shipbuilding stated that during the reporting period, the company gave full play to its advantages in mass construction of main ship types and continued to deepen cost control; at the same time, the structure of on-hand orders continued to be optimized, the proportion of mid-to-high-end ship types delivered and the average price of a single ship increased year-on-year, the construction cycle of main ship types was compressed, and production efficiency improved, which jointly drove both revenue and gross profit levels upward.
According to annual report data, in 2025, China Shipbuilding received a total of 237 orders for civilian and offshore vessels (30.5067 million deadweight tons/175.836 billion yuan).
As of the end of 2025, the company has accumulated orders for 652 civilian and offshore vessels (79.973 million deadweight tons/467.451 billion yuan).
Among the orders on hand, the number of subdivided ship types such as LPG ships, container ships, bulk carriers, chemical tankers, and car carriers ranks among the top in the market.
Supported by the growth of both revenue and orders, during the reporting period, China Shipbuilding achieved a total profit of 10.724 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 96.95%; and a net profit attributable to the parent company of 7.848 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 86.00%.
As of the end of the reporting period, the company’s total assets were 420.489 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.17%.
During the same period, the company’s gross profit margin was 12.58%, a year-on-year increase of 2.38 percentage points; the net profit margin was 6.92%, a year-on-year increase of 2.01 percentage points.
In terms of debt, in 2025, China’s total ship liabilities will be 270.899 billion yuan, a slight increase of 2.57% year-on-year; the asset-liability ratio will be 64.42%, a year-on-year decrease of 1.01 percentage points.
Based on the good performance in 2025, in 2026, China Shipbuilding plans to complete operating income of more than 165 billion yuan, complete 168 civilian shipbuilding units/16.5 million deadweight tons, and produce ship supporting equipment, electromechanical equipment and other business output value of more than 17 billion yuan.
According to the financial report, in the first quarter of this year, China Shipbuilding achieved operating income of 43.312 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 54.90%; the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 4.832 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 251.64%.
In terms of orders, on April 30, Hudong-Zhonghua United China Shipbuilding Industry Trading Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corporation, officially signed a construction contract for 12 13,600TEU liquefied natural gas (LNG) dual-fuel powered container ships with Orient Overseas (International) Co., Ltd., with a total project value of more than 15 billion yuan.
The performance explosion of Chinese ships is not an isolated case.
Recently, many leading domestic shipbuilding companies have successively released their 2025 annual reports, and their net profits attributable to shareholders have all increased significantly year-on-year. This also confirms that the domestic shipbuilding industry’s business cycle continues to deepen, and the industry as a whole maintains a good development momentum.
In 2025, the operating income of Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Group, the largest private shipbuilding company in China, increased by 7.4% year-on-year to 28.5 billion yuan, and its net profit increased by 30.2% year-on-year to 8.6 billion yuan.
In the first quarter of 2026, the company successfully signed 22 new ship construction contracts, with a total contract value of approximately US$980 million. These new ships will be delivered one after another from 2028 to 2029.
As of the end of the first quarter of 2026, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding had 256 unfinished shipbuilding orders, totaling approximately US$22.78 billion.
Thanks to the previous purchase of shipbuilding-related assets of Hengli Heavy Industry Group Co., Ltd. and the completion of the transformation of its main business, in 2025, Guangdong Songfa Ceramics Co., Ltd.’s total operating income increased by 274.95% year-on-year, and net profit attributable to the parent company increased by 1083.05% year-on-year.
On April 27, Songfa Shares disclosed that in the first quarter of this year, the company achieved operating income of 8.888 billion yuan and net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies of 1.093 billion yuan, both achieving substantial year-on-year growth.
In terms of orders, Hengli Heavy Industry achieved its best performance in the same period in history.
A total of 108 new shipbuilding projects have been signed in the first quarter of 2026, and the total number of orders has approached the level of 115 ships for the whole of 2025, and the production plan has been scheduled to 2030.
Behind the explosive performance of leading shipbuilding companies and sufficient reserves of orders on hand, the prosperity of the global shipbuilding industry continues to heat up.
On April 30, a research report released by China International Finance Securities pointed out that the shipbuilding cycle continues to rise, China’s shipbuilding competitiveness has improved, and completed orders have continued to increase.
Benefiting from the catalysis of the replacement of old ships and environmental protection policies in the shipping industry, the shipbuilding cycle continues to rise.
According to data from the Ministry of Natural Resources, in the first quarter of this year, my country’s three major indicators of new sea-going ship orders, sea-going ship completions, and in-hand sea-going ship orders increased across the board, with increases of 116.7%, 33.3%, and 30.0% respectively compared with the same period last year. The international market share continues to rank first in the world.
An analysis by Bai Wenxi, vice chairman of the China Enterprise Capital Alliance, pointed out that in the first quarter of 2026, China will win 70% of global new ship orders, and orders for oil tankers and bulk carriers are expected to become the main line of growth in the next stage.
In the long term, the global fleet is aging (the average ship age exceeds 22 years), and new IMO environmental regulations force the elimination of old ships. The demand for renewal before 2030 will still support the industry’s upward cycle.
At present, China has established and consolidated a relatively solid position in the global shipbuilding industry.
From the perspective of competitive landscape, my country’s shipbuilding industry has received strong support from national policies, built an integrated development pattern for the entire industry chain, and has a labor cost advantage.
Not only that, Chinese shipbuilding companies continue to promote intelligent transformation, digital transformation and green upgrading, strengthen the resilience of the industrial chain and supply chain, the overall level of the shipbuilding industry continues to improve, and the core competitiveness continues to increase.
However, there are also cautious views in the industry, believing that China’s shipbuilding industry still faces potential risks and challenges such as global economic fluctuations, changes in international trade patterns and industry policy adjustments.
Fu Yifu, a special researcher at Suzhou Commercial Bank, said: The shipbuilding industry is expected to maintain a high and volatile pattern in 2026. Affected by the high base effect and shipowners’ capital expenditure cycle, the slowdown in the growth rate of new shipbuilding orders may become a high probability event.
Specifically, in terms of global economic fluctuations, if the growth rate of major economies is lower than expected, it will reduce maritime trade volume and affect shipowners’ willingness to order ships; changes in the international trade environment, such as geopolitical conflicts leading to route adjustments or intensified trade barriers, may push up shipping costs and suppress ship demand. At the same time, stricter environmental regulations (such as EEXI, CII, etc.) will accelerate the elimination of old ships and bring structural opportunities to the industry.
“Overall, the industry’s prosperity is expected to continue, but growth and profit margins will be restricted by multiple factors.” Fu Yifu emphasized.
