186 vessels! Japanese shipbuilders’ order intake has declined for four consecutive years.

Japanese shipbuilders saw their order intake decline by 20% year-on-year in 2025, marking the fourth consecutive year of decline.

Recently, the Japan Ship Exporters’ Association (JSEA) released the full-year order intake data for Japanese shipbuilders in 2025. Last year, Japanese shipbuilders received a total of 186 orders amounting to 89,365,140 GT, a decrease of 19.9% compared to the 251 orders totaling 111,602,060 GT in 2024—a reduction of 65 orders in number.

By ship type, last year Japanese shipbuilders received new ship orders totaling 147 bulk carriers with a combined gross tonnage of 6,510,390 GT, a decrease of 49 vessels compared to the previous year. Among these, handy-size bulk carriers increased by 2 vessels to 59, making them the only sub-type to show growth; ore carriers remained at 2 vessels, unchanged from 2024; and Capesize bulk carriers decreased by 3 vessels to 25, representing a relatively small decline. By contrast, large handy-size bulk carriers fell by 16 vessels to 53, Panamax vessels declined by 20 vessels to 5, and ultra-Panamax vessels dropped by 11 vessels to 3. In 2024, there was still 1 order for a cement carrier, but in 2025, there were no orders at all.

Last year, Japanese shipbuilders received orders for a total of 25 cargo vessels with a combined gross tonnage of 1,492,474 GT, an increase of one vessel compared to the previous year. Among these, container ship orders rose by nine to 18 vessels, and car carrier orders increased by one to two vessels, while general cargo ship orders declined by nine to five vessels.

The order for liquid cargo vessels totaled 13 ships with a combined deadweight tonnage of 9.317 million GT, down 18 ships year-on-year. Among these, VLCC orders increased by 2 to 4 ships, and Aframax tanker orders rose by 1 to 2 ships; however, LPG carriers decreased by 5 to 1 ship, LPG/ammonia carriers fell by 4 to 2 ships, and chemical tankers declined by 7 to 4 ships. Orders for Suezmax tankers (3 ships in 2024), small tankers (1 ship in 2024), and asphalt carriers (1 ship in 2024) all stood at zero.

The only other vessel order is a 480 GT fisheries research vessel.

In December last year, Japanese shipbuilders received a total of 27 new orders amounting to 1.4547 million GT, representing a substantial increase of 59.3% compared to the 9 orders totaling 506,640 GT received during the same period in 2024. By vessel type, the 27 new ship orders received by Japanese shipbuilders in December last year included 6 container ships totaling 211,800 GT and 21 bulk carriers (5 flexible-type, 7 ultra-flexible-type, 1 Panamax, 1 Cape-size, and 2 ore carriers), which together amounted to 1.2429 million GT.

In the first three quarters of fiscal year 2025 (April 2025 – December 2025), Japanese shipbuilders received orders for a total of 147 vessels with a combined gross tonnage of 6,780,314 GT, representing a year-on-year decrease of 20.7%. Among these orders were 20 cargo ships totaling 1,220,794 GT, 116 bulk carriers totaling 4,966,350 GT, and 11 liquid cargo vessels totaling 593,170 GT.

Japanese media pointed out that despite robust demand for shipbuilding, Japan's domestic shipyards have limited construction capacity. Shipbuilding docks scheduled for delivery around 2029 are already fully booked, leaving them unable to take on additional orders and resulting in the loss of some contracts. Currently, Japanese shipbuilders' market share has fallen to around 10%.

At the end of last year, the Japanese government unveiled a revitalization plan for the shipbuilding industry, aiming to increase annual shipbuilding capacity to 18 million gross tons by 2035—nearly double the current level. Japanese shipbuilding industry officials stated: “To achieve the government’s goal of doubling shipbuilding volume, it is essential to boost order volumes. Although growth won’t be dramatic, there’s no doubt that order volumes will trend upward in the future.”

As of the end of last December, Japanese shipbuilders had a total of 622 vessels on order, with a combined gross tonnage of 30.01 million GT—a slight increase from the 28.98 million GT recorded at the end of November. Currently, the order backlog held by Japanese shipbuilders remains at a high level; the current backlog is equivalent to roughly 3.8 years’ worth of construction volume.