ⓘ About this map

The Shipbuilding Cycle — One Read

Shipping always breaks the same way. The orderbook tells you when, two to four years early.

Shipping is the textbook cyclical and it always runs one direction. Strong freight makes existing ships worth more. High secondhand prices tempt owners to order. Those orders arrive two to four years later as the oversupply that kills the next cycle. The map lays the loop out across tankers, dry bulk, LNG and LPG, containers and car carriers.

It also shows who builds them. China now builds over half the world's tonnage and leads bulkers, boxships, car carriers and crude tankers. Korea's big three — HD Hyundai, Hanwha Ocean, Samsung Heavy — hold roughly 70% of LNG carriers. And it maps the part monopolies that tax every yard: GTT on LNG containment, the Korea-China engine duopoly, POSCO marine steel.

Owner baskets and freight ETFs update daily. The orderbook is the closest thing this industry has to a leading indicator. Most people only read it after the fact.

Companies & entities in this map

Crude tankers, Dry bulk, Product tankers, LPG carriers, Container ships, Car carriers, LNG carriers, HD Hyundai HI, Hanwha Ocean, CSSC (Dalian), China yards (majority), Yangzijiang, HD Hyundai Mipo (MR king), HD Hyundai / Hanwha, China yards, HDHD Hyundai HI (dominant), CSSC yards, Korea Big-3, China (CMHI/CSSC), HD Hyundai Mipo / global yards, Samsung Heavy, Hudong-Zhonghua

Muad'Dib Capital, the Atlas of the Physical Economy. For information only — not investment advice. Company lists are representative selections curated from public sources.

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SHIPBUILDING › FREIGHT → SECONDHAND → ORDERBOOK → VERDICT

owner stocks live · orderbook curated