Shipbuilding orderbook passes its 2008 record as MSC adds three more megamaxes
Clarksons puts the backlog at 226.1m cgt, worth about $700bn, with Chinese yards holding 68% of it
The global shipbuilding orderbook has passed its pre-financial-crisis record. Clarksons Research puts the backlog at 226.1m compensated gross tonnes in October, just above the 225.5m cgt reached in September 2008. Worth about $700bn, it has grown 24% in a year and is three times its 2020 level.
Deliveries are set to follow. Clarksons projects 64m cgt of output in 2027, 24% more than this year's estimate and 18% above the record of 55m cgt set in 2010, and up to 72m cgt in 2028, 60% above the 2025 level.
How does today's orderbook compare with 2008?
Relative to the fleet the backlog is much smaller: 25% of existing gross tonnage, against 53% eighteen years ago. In deadweight it is 601m dwt, against 657m dwt then, which reflects a change in mix. Containerships account for 31% of the orderbook by cgt, almost double their 2008 share, and gas carriers for 15% against 5%, while bulkers have fallen from 31% to 17%. Ships capable of running on alternative fuels make up 43% of the backlog, against 2% at the last peak.
Chinese yards hold 68% of the orderbook, twice their 2008 share, and account for 60% of this year's output. South Korea's share has slipped to 17% and Japan's to around 8%, and six of the ten largest yards by orderbook are Chinese. Hengli, which restarted shipbuilding only in 2022 and is based in Dalian, leads the yard ranking with 485 ships on order. Clarksons tracks about 225 shipbuilding expansion projects worldwide, more than three-quarters of them in China, although there are around 500 active builders today against roughly 1,000 in 2008. BIMCO has warned that the Chinese build-out could leave yards underused once ordering slows, and Banchero Costa expects some deliveries scheduled for 2027 and 2028 to slip into later years.
What has been ordered this week?
MSC has been linked to three more 21,700 teu LNG dual-fuel containerships at Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding in Shanghai, taking its series at the CSSC yard to 13. Shipbrokers put the price at about $210m each, or around $630m for the three, which are due in March, July and November 2029. Neither MSC nor the yard has confirmed the contract or its value. MSC's operated fleet stood at about 7.47m teu at the end of October, with a newbuilding pipeline approaching 3.4m teu.
CSSC Chengxi Shipyard and China Shipbuilding Trading signed a contract on 23 October for four 3,700 teu feeder containerships with an unnamed European owner, linked by shipbrokers to Germany's Peter Döhle. Price and delivery have not been disclosed. The yard signed for two 3,100 teu ships with an unnamed European owner in March, listed at $48m each.
This story is part of the Maritime Briefing of 3 November 2026.
