Japan, Korea and China as the major shipbuilding nations control about 90% of the world production. Historically, United Kingdom, Germany, Poland and many other European countries were controlling the shipbuilding industry. The focus shifted to Japan in the seventies and to Korea in the eighties. South Korea has established its supreme position and continues to enjoy the same. However, China today is merging as one of the front-runners in shipbuilding. From a meager 10 yards in the nineties, it has over 750 Shipbuilding yards today, and many of them are capable of building VLCCs. New yards are mushrooming as Greenfield projects. Although quality is a major concern in some of the yards, some of the top yards are building state of the art vessels to the highest technical standards. Nevertheless, the owners need to have a large supervision team to ensure that Chinese yards do not cut corners and deliver substandard ships.

Powered by a strong demand for new buildings and coupled with strong administrative support from the Central Government, major changes are sweeping through the Chinese shipbuilding industry, generating effects that are being felt across the global new building market place. In response to huge international demand, Chinese shipbuilders are rapidly expanding both their product ranges and their new building capacity. In addition to an already long established product line of panamax and handy sized tankers and bulkers, Chinese shipyards re new building a wide range of export vessels, including Ro-Ro's and Luxury Ropax Ships, car and truck carriers and container ships up to 10,000 TEU, as well as a full range of tankers including VLCCs, Suezmax and Aframax Vessels, and Product Tankers of various sizes. Whilst the first of a series of Chinese-built LNG Carriers was constructed in 2006 at Shanghai's Hodong Zhonghua Shipyard, four additional LNG vessels have already been signed by this yard to meet China's growing demand for LNG imports. In the offshore sector, Chinese Shipbuilders are also expanding their capabilities and engaging in projects for the construction of sophisticated FPSO and other production, drilling (both semi-submersible and Jack up rigs) and support vessels.

The productivity of the Chinese shipbuilding industry has also increased markedly in recent years. In 1990, China's order book was about 2 Million GT (Gross Tons), or about 3% of world market share, but by 2006 this had increased to 30.6 Million GT, (including 13.5 Million GT of orders taken in 2005 and 12.6 Million GT in 2004) equating to about a 16% market share; this placed China firmly in position as the World's third largest shipbuilder after Korea (65.5 Million GT equating to roughly 36% of global market share). The Chinese Government has furthermore identified shipbuilding as a strategic industry and made clear its ambition for China to become the World's largest shipbuilder by 2015. In the past decade massive capacity increases in the form either of new shipyards or the renovation and expansion of existing facilities have taken place at numerous Chinese shipbuilding sites. VLCCs are now being built at four Chinese shipyards, Bohai, DSIC (Dalian Shipbuilding Industry corp.) Jiagnan (at their new Changxing Island mega facility) and NACKS (Nantong COSCO Kawasaki Shipyard), whilst a number of other shipbuilders (including Hudong Zhonghua, New Century and Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipyard) have added construction capacity up to VLCC capability. In addition to these facilities, many more expansion projects still in the development phase will, if approved and constructed, add even more new building docks to China's total construction capacity. The most significant of these planned developments is the Qingdao Haixi Bay Complex, due to open in 2008, which is aiming to become the largest shipbuilding and ship repair facility in China, set to cover more than 2.6 Million Square Meters and incorporating new VLCC and ULCC building docks. As such, one could safely assume that China could be the future center as far as shipbuilding is concerned. However, it would be imperative to note that the traditional powerhouse's viz. Japan and South Korea could be expected to put up a stiff fight.