"The competition with the US is driving China to build the world's largest shipbuilding company," The Wall Street Journal published an article titled on August 11, stating that this merger aims to reduce costs, integrate military and civilian shipbuilding resources, and strengthen China's competitiveness in the global market. At the same time, the US shipbuilding industry is in a long-term decline, with a negligible market share. President Trump of the United States even tried to use measures such as imposing high tariffs and port fees to curb the development of China's shipbuilding industry. Once a major shipbuilding power, Japan also attempts to take this opportunity to reverse its decline.

Scholars point out that facing the complex external situation, China "will not give up", and the competition between China and the US in shipbuilding will prompt China to further accelerate the upgrading of its industrialization.

China Shipbuilding and China Cosco are both leading enterprises in China's shipbuilding industry. After the merger, China Shipbuilding will become the world's largest shipbuilding listed company. According to the restructuring plan, this transaction will be carried out through stock exchange, and the transaction amount reaches 115.15 billion yuan.

Analysts pointed out that this transaction is the integration and upgrading of the national team and main force in China's shipbuilding industry. It is also considered by the industry as a response to the call for the strategic emerging industry of "deep-sea technology", and as an important practice to concentrate the national strategic industrial forces in military industry, marine engineering, and high-end manufacturing, in line with the central finance committee's strategic deployment to promote the high-quality development of the "marine economy".

On June 20, Shanghai, the delivery of the first 16,000 TEU methanol dual-fuel container ship in China. Visual China

Bloomberg said that this $16 billion merger will be completed this week, giving rise to the world's largest shipbuilding company. The merged company hopes to leverage the advantages of scale to reduce costs and help it withstand the industry turbulence caused by Trump's related measures.

"This is a key milestone in China's long-term efforts to lead the global shipbuilding process," said Matthew Funaiole, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "This strengthens China's ability to implement the strategy of military-civilian integration. Commercial and military production are increasingly integrated, sharing technology, talent, and infrastructure."

According to new order data from Clarkson Research, China Shipbuilding and China Cosco together accounted for nearly 17% of the global market last year. The total number of orders after the merger will exceed 530 ships, with a total deadweight of 54 million tons, making it the largest in the world. Based on the latest annual report, the annual revenue is about 18 billion US dollars.

The article mentioned that China has set the goal of leading the shipbuilding industry for decades. Now, Chinese shipyards occupy more than half of the global market share. According to United Nations data, China's ships accounted for about 55% of the global tonnage last year, while the US was less than 0.05%. According to the US Navy statistics, China's shipbuilding capacity is 232 times that of the US.

After decades of decline in the shipping industry, American shipbuilding companies are now trying to catch up, but Trump's grand plan to revitalize the US shipbuilding industry recently encountered obstacles. He threatened to impose higher port fees on Chinese-made ships, trying to reverse the decline. This makes South Korea and Japan's competitors feel they have an opportunity to regain market share, which also poses a challenge to Chinese shipyards.

Previously, the Hong Kong English media "South China Morning Post" analyzed that the Trump administration's policy of imposing high port fees on Chinese manufactured or operated vessels would place the shipping industry in a difficult choice: either remove Chinese ships from the fleet, or bear sharply rising costs.

However, Silvia Ding, the president of Maersk Greater China, stated on July 16 that when Maersk orders new ships, it will consider various factors including cost and technical requirements, but will not increase customer prices due to US port fees, nor will it exclude Chinese shipyards, which reflects "continuous confidence and commitment to the Chinese market".

Additionally, Trump's tariffs and the trend of countries focusing on local supply chains may impact global trade, thereby reducing the demand for cargo ships.

Clarkson data shows that new ship orders worldwide fell by 48% in the first half of 2025. For example, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, the largest private shipyard listed in Singapore, received 14 ships worth 540 million USD in the first half of 2025, while the total in 2024 was 126 ships worth 14.6 billion USD.

Yangzijiang Shipbuilding stated that the industry is facing "macroeconomic uncertainty and geopolitical tensions".

Chinese shipbuilders' competitors are seizing the opportunity to "counterattack". For instance, some smaller Japanese shipyards, after being suppressed by Chinese and South Korean peers for decades, are striving to regain market share.

In the 1990s, Japan accounted for half of the global shipbuilding output. Hiroto Hinokawa, president of Nihon Shipbuilding, and chairman of the Japan Shipbuilding Industry Association, said in June this year that Japan plans to increase its market share from the current about 9% to 20% by 2030. He said the association is uniting Japanese shipbuilding companies and ship companies under the "All Japan" strategy to counter China and South Korea.

At the same time, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in Japan proposed a proposal calling for substantial subsidies for domestic shipyards to ensure national security, including a 6.7 billion US dollar public-private partnership fund. In a statement, the LDP said, "If we do not act now, Japan may lose its shipbuilding industry completely, like Europe and the United States."

But obviously, no matter the turbulence of the external environment or the challenges from competitors, it is difficult to shake China's position as the leading shipbuilder in the world.

"China will not easily give up," said Professor Huang Guangli of the National University of Singapore, who studies Chinese state-owned enterprises. "Shipbuilding is one of the core capabilities that China wants to build, and the competition with the US will push them to upgrade rapidly."

Regarding the US's pressure on Chinese-built vessels, China has responded by stating that the development of China's shipbuilding industry is the result of enterprise technological innovation and active participation in market competition, and has made important contributions to helping the development of global trade, and the stable and safe operation of the global supply chain.

Several US research reports show that the US shipbuilding industry lost its competitive edge years ago due to excessive protectionism. The US attributes its own problems to China, which lacks factual basis and contradicts economic common sense.

The US's unilateralist and protectionist practices are unpopular, only increasing global shipping costs, disrupting the stability of the global supply chain, and harming the interests of all countries. Ultimately, it cannot revive the US shipbuilding industry.

This article is an exclusive article by Observer, and unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7537723320650531380/

Statement: The article represents the views of the author, and you are welcome to express your attitude by clicking on the [Up/Down] buttons below.