As a country facing the sea on all sides, in the past 50-90s, Japan seized the opportunity of shifting the center of the global shipbuilding industry to become a major shipbuilding industry in the world, and its shipbuilding completions ranked first in the world for nearly 40 consecutive years. However, with the rise of the shipbuilding industry in China and South Korea, Japan's shipbuilding industry has not only stagnated, but its market share has also shown a waterfall decline, and it has only stabilized in recent years.
Today, the pattern of the global shipbuilding industry has been basically stable, that is, China, Japan and South Korea dominate. So, what kind of state is the shipbuilding industry in China and Japan?
Japan: A powerful country for a while
The modern Japanese shipbuilding industry arose during the Meiji Restoration, and the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Shipyard, which was owned by the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, covered almost all categories of military and civilian ships. During World War II, Japan produced the largest tonnage of battleships "Yamato" and "Musashi" at that time. The ability to build aircraft carriers was no weaker than that of Britain and the United States at that time.
After World War II, the global shipbuilding industry shifted away from the United Kingdom, and Japan, with its rich shipbuilding experience and capabilities, seized the opportunity and soon surpassed Britain to become the world's largest shipbuilding power in 1956.
At that time, there were many shipyards in Japan, and in addition to shipbuilding giants such as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, there were also famous medium- and large-sized shipyards such as Kawasaki Shipbuilding, Oshima, Wankoku, Mitsui, Tsuneishi, and Imabari. The peak of Japan's shipbuilding industry came in 1973, when the total volume of deliveries reached 30 million deadweight tons, and at one time it controlled more than half of the world's shipbuilding orders.
Since the 80s, with the rapid rise of the shipbuilding industry in China and South Korea, the Japanese shipbuilding industry has gradually lagged behind since 2000, and the annual shipbuilding completion volume has gradually declined to the third place in the world. From the perspective of industrial layout, Japan's shipbuilding industry is mainly concentrated in Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, Kobe and Nagasaki, and is controlled by four major companies: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, IWC Shipbuilding Company, Ishikawashima Harima United Shipbuilding Company and Kawasaki Shipbuilding. These shipyards take advantage of the intensification and scale of Japanese industry, and the manufacture of military and civilian vessels can be seamlessly switched.
At present, although the tonnage of Japan's annual military ship launching is not large, it can quickly switch to production at full capacity in the event of a war, and the annual tonnage of ships can reach more than 5 million tons. This also means that Japan can expand its maritime power at any time and increase its size by more than ten times, which must be worthy of the vigilance of East Asian countries.
According to the data, in 2023, Japan's shipbuilding completion will exceed 15 million deadweight tons, second only to China and South Korea, and it will not be the same as before. In recent years, in order to support the domestic shipbuilding industry, Japan has supplied 100 billion yuan of large orders, and NYK has spent 200 billion yen to purchase 12 LNG ships from two shipbuilding enterprises in Japan.
Japan's largest shipbuilding giant, Imabari Shipbuilding, announced that it will develop hydrogen-fueled ships and strive to master the world's leading technology to return to the global shipbuilding hegemony. It aims to take the lead in commercialization in the field of next-generation fuel ships.
Compared with Japan, China's shipbuilding industry has been thriving in recent years, and the shipbuilding industry is the "three jewels in the crown": aircraft carriers, large cruise ships, and liquefied natural gas carriers, which can be manufactured independently in China, and they represent the highest level of passenger, cargo and military ships.
In 2023, the first domestically produced large-scale cruise ship "Aida Modu" will be officially delivered and put into operation, marking that China has become the first to build the full spectrum of marine products. The success of these projects not only represents a breakthrough in shipbuilding technology, but also means that the competitiveness and status of China's shipbuilding industry in the international market have been unbeatable.
In the past 2023, China's shipbuilding completion volume will be 42.32 million deadweight tons, accounting for 50% of the international market share2%。In terms of shipbuilding completion, it is almost three times that of Japan, and the gap is not small. Among the 18 major ship types in the world, 14 maintain the world's largest number of new orders. In particular, the number of new orders for car carriers accounts for more than 80% of the global total, oil tankers account for 70%, and container ships account for nearly 50%, all of which have a high share, and China's position as a world-class factory for merchant ships is constantly consolidating.
At present, even Japanese companies have turned their heads to Chinese companies to buy ships, and Japan Ocean Network Shipping Co., Ltd. has ordered 12 methanol dual-fuel ships from Jiangnan Shipbuilding and Yangtze River Shipbuilding. Mitsui O.S.K.L., one of Japan's largest shipping companies, has ordered five LNG-powered Newcastlemax tankers, to be built at the Nippon Shipyard and Qingdao Beihai Shipbuilding***. It can be seen that China is more cost-effective in building high-tech ships.