China’s largest private shipbuilding company, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Group, is accelerating its order intake pace, securing its first large container ship order this year.
On September 27, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Group announced that since August 29, the group has successfully received orders for 8 new ships, including 4 container ships (2 x 11,800 TEU, 1 x 1,800 TEU, and 1 x 1,100 TEU) and 4 x 71,000 DWT bulk carriers. These new ships will be delivered successively from 2027 to 2029, with a total contract value of approximately $440 million (about RMB 3.139 billion).
Yangzijiang Shipbuilding specifically emphasized that the order for the 2 x 11,800 TEU container ships came from one of the group’s long-standing most trusted partners—the world’s largest independent container ship owner, Seaspan Corporation.
It is understood that Seaspan is the world’s largest independent container ship owner, possessing industry-leading ship management services. Its business scope primarily involves providing charter services to the world’s large container liner companies based on the principles of long-term, fixed-rate, time charters. As of June 30, 2025, Seaspan’s fleet operates 182 ships with a total capacity of approximately 1.89 million TEU and an average vessel age of 7.1 years; at the same time, Seaspan also has 42 newbuildings under construction, as well as 2 second-hand car carriers that have been contracted for purchase and are scheduled for delivery in July. All newbuildings under construction will be delivered successively by August 2029.
Seaspan has been continuously expanding its fleet in recent years, ordering a large number of container ships. Between 2020 and 2021, Seaspan successively ordered more than 70 container ships. During this period, its orderbook once exceeded 800,000 TEU, ranking first globally. Among these, as many as 44 ships were ordered from Yangzijiang Shipbuilding for construction, including 15 LNG-powered 7,000 TEU ships, 6 x 12,000 TEU ships, 5 x 12,200 TEU ships, 16 x 15,000 TEU ships, and 2 x 24,000 TEU ships.
Last year, Seaspan returned to the container ship newbuilding market, and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding was again the biggest winner. According to Clarksons data, last year Seaspan ordered a total of 41 container ships, of which Yangzijiang Shipbuilding received orders for 12 x 9,000 TEU and 10 x 17,000 TEU dual-fuel LNG-powered ships. Additionally, Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding received orders for 6 x 13,600 TEU ships, and New Times Shipbuilding received orders for 8 x 9,200 TEU and 5 x 16,800 TEU dual-fuel LNG-powered ships.
Including the latest order for 2 x 11,800 TEU ships from Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, Seaspan has ordered a total of 20 container ships from domestic shipyards this year. Previously, in April this year, Seaspan placed an order with Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding for 6 x 11,400 TEU class container ships; in August, it signed a contract with Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding to build 12 x 9,000 TEU container ships.
It is worth mentioning that the Seaspan order is also the first large container ship order received by Yangzijiang Shipbuilding this year. In the first eight months of this year, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding received a total of 30 container ship orders, including 4 x 1,100 TEU, 8 x 1,700 TEU, 4 x 1,800 TEU, 6 x 2,900 TEU, 4 x 3,000 TEU, 2 x 4,300 TEU, and 2 x 4,488 TEU.
In recent years, the container ship orders received by Yangzijiang Shipbuilding have mostly been medium and large-sized ships. Particularly last year, out of 68 new container ship orders for Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, 28 were 17,000 TEU ships, along with 17 x 13,000 TEU, 16 x 9,000 TEU, 5 x 8,000 TEU, and 2 x 4,300 TEU ships. According to Clarksons data, the last time Yangzijiang Shipbuilding received an order for small ships below 2,000 TEU was in July 2022, when Greek shipowner Cosmoship Management ordered 2 x 1,781 TEU feeder ships for delivery in 2024.
So far this year, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding has accumulated new ship orders for 44 ships, with a total value of approximately $1.9 billion (about RMB 13.556 billion), completing 32% of its full-year order target of $6 billion.
While announcing the receipt of new orders, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding also issued an announcement stating the termination of the construction contracts for 4 x 50,000 DWT MR-type product tankers. These 4 tankers were originally scheduled for delivery from 2026 to 2027, with a total contract value of approximately $180 million (about RMB 1.284 billion).
The announcement shows that Jiangsu Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Group Co., Ltd., Jiangsu New Yangzi Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., and Jiangsu Yangzi Xinfu Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. jointly decided to terminate the orders for 4 MR-type product tankers with a specific buyer, reserving all legal rights against the buyer. The reason for the contract termination is “certain key information recently disclosed by the buyer indicates that its sole shareholder is suspected of involvement in activities to circumvent U.S. sanctions laws and regulations.”
Yangzijiang Shipbuilding stated that at the time of contract signing, the company had received a deposit equivalent to 10% of the contract value, amounting to $18 million (about RMB 128 million); currently, only the construction of one of these ships has commenced, for which an additional 10% installment payment of $4.48 million (about RMB 31.9639 million) was received. The contract termination is not expected to have a material impact on the company’s and the group’s net assets and earnings per share for the current fiscal year ending December 31, 2025.
According to data previously disclosed by Yangzijiang Shipbuilding in its half-year report, as of June 30 this year, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding’s orderbook stood at 236 ships totaling 8.79 million CGT, valued at $23.2 billion (about RMB 165.947 billion), with delivery schedules extending to 2030. The orderbook features a diverse ship type structure, including 107 container ships valued at $15.97 billion, 39 bulk carriers valued at $1.63 billion, 26 liquefied gas carriers (/VLEC) valued at $2.38 billion, and 64 tankers valued at $3.23 billion. Green clean energy ship types account for approximately 74% of the total value of the orderbook.
