China's first domestically-built large cruise ship, the Adora Magic City, docked at Shanghai Wusongkou International Cruise Port on January 1. (PHOTO: XINHUA)

Edited by WANG Xiaoxia 

China's shipbuilding industry has ranked first in the world for 14 consecutive years in terms of three major indicators, according to the latest data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). 

In 2023, China was the only country to achieve comprehensive growth of the three major indicators, namely, shipbuilding output increased 11.8 percent year-on-year to 42.3 million deadweight tonnes (dwt), new orders surged 56.4 percent year-on-year to 71.2 million dwt, and holding orders expanded 32 percent year-on-year to 139.39 million dwt, said the MIIT.

It is notable that China's shipbuilding industry has been upgraded through continuous technological innovation, and made breakthroughs in homegrown large ship building, including large cruise ships, large LNG carriers and aircraft carriers.

China's first domestically-built large cruise ship, the Adora Magic City, was delivered in Shanghai on November 4, 2023, after five year’s design and construction. The cruise ship, 323.6 meters in length, with a gross weight of 135,500 tonnes and a total of 2,125 guest rooms, can accommodate up to 5,246 passengers. On January 7 this year, it completed its commercial maiden voyage.

Dubbed a "super freezer truck at sea,” constructing a large LNG carrier is globally recognized as a challenging project. China delivered its first large LNG carriers in 2008, the Dapeng Sun, breaking the duopoly of Japan and South Korea in LNG carrier manufacturing. Since then, Chinese shipbuilders continue to update technologies and increase the localization rate. As of June 2023, it has safely carried 257 cargo shipments with a cumulative delivery of approximately 16.7 million tons of LNG. From January to July 2023, China undertook the order of 18 large LNG carriers, accounting for 35 percent of the global total.

In 2017, the first domestically built aircraft carrier, the Shandong, was launched and in December, 2019, the Shandong officially entered service. In June 2022, China launched its third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, which has a displacement of more than 80,000 tons and is the first catapult aircraft carrier designed and built completely by China.