China Merchants moves to revive Quanzhou Shipyard as the orderbook hits a record
The Fujian yard has two drydocks for 300,000 dwt ships but has built almost nothing for over a decade
China Merchants is moving to take control of the long-dormant Quanzhou Shipyard in Fujian province, the latest in a series of yard revivals that has seen Chinese shipbuilding capacity nearly double in recent years.
The state-owned conglomerate has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the authorities in Quanzhou, opening the way to restart a facility whose newbuilding operations have been largely idle for more than a decade. Financial terms and the final ownership structure have not been disclosed.
The yard covers 134 hectares, with 3.6 km of coastline and two drydocks able to take ships of 300,000 dwt, the size of a VLCC. Repair work resumed in 2023, but a return to large-scale newbuilding would be a significant expansion.
Over the past 18 months China Merchants has already absorbed or reactivated yards in Qingdao, Nanjing and Wuhan.
The move comes as the global orderbook reached a record 226.1m compensated gross tonnes, passing the previous peak of 225.5m cgt set in September 2008, as covered in our report on the orderbook record. Worth about $700bn, the backlog is heavily concentrated in China, whose yards hold 68% of outstanding orders, Clarksons Research figures show.
Clarksons is tracking about 225 shipyard expansion projects worldwide, more than three-quarters of them in China. Other Chinese builders are also adding capacity in specialised segments: Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding, which has just delivered the cruise ship Adora Flora City, is planning a dedicated cruise assembly base.
This story is part of the Maritime Briefing of 12 November 2026.
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