Inside Vietnamese Shipbuilding: Challenges and Opportunities

While many economic sectors were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, Vietnam's shipbuilding industry continued to grow, affirming its strong and growing position in the international space. Vietnam's shipbuilding industry achieved many accomplishments in 2024 with the construction, launching and delivery of many specialized ships, contributing to the world's fleet, operating on global shipping routes.

By 2030, to develop the maritime economy, the Vietnamese fleet is expected to be restructured and developed to about 1,600 to 1,750 vessels with a total tonnage of 17-18 million DWT, of which the marine transport fleet will be about 1,200 vessels with a total tonnage of about 13 million DWT to 14 million DWT. The aging of the fleet and the increasing requirement to comply with environmental regulations, especially the International Maritime Organization (IMO)'s regulations on mandatory clean energy conversion under COP 26, will promote the growth of the shipbuilding industry in the coming time when a new generation of modern ships is needed to replace the old, aging fleet to meet the demand.

As of June 30, 2024, Vietnam has 88 shipbuilding enterprises and 411 inland waterway vehicle construction facilities (of which about 120 can build and repair ships with a tonnage of over 1,000 tons). The total new building capacity of shipyards is up to 2.6 million DWT per year. According to the Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Research Report 2023-2032 on "Research and Markets", the world's largest market research database platform, Vietnam's shipbuilding industry is growing rapidly.

The Shift to Asia Continues

The shift of the shipbuilding market to Asia is an opportunity for Vietnam to take advantage of its existing conditions in terms of technology, resources, and labor to participate in building ships to export, developing a diverse fleet of ships to serve the Strategy for sustainable development of Vietnam's maritime economy to 2030, with a vision to 2045. Vietnam identifies the maritime economy as the driving force to promote the development of other economy sectors, thereby creating a fundamental and comprehensive transformation of the marine economic structure towards industrialization and modernization. On the other hand, currently, due to the increasing demand for maritime transport, the shipbuilding industry is expected to have many market opportunities. According to the list of Top 15 global shipbuilding powers (data from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) published by Insider Monkey, Vietnam ranked 7th. Being included in the list of Top 7 shipbuilding powers in the world is a clear demonstration of the capacity and development potential of the domestic shipbuilding industry, thereby attracting many contracts.

The leader of the Shipbuilding Industry Corporation - SBIC shared: “The 21st century is the "Century of the Ocean", along with the advances in science and technology and the rapid development of the industries, humans have gradually mastered the nature, mastered the sea; activities and services to exploit the potential of the sea are constantly emerging and developing. The construction and development of the maritime economy has become the top priority and strategy of every country with a sea. The world shipbuilding market is ready to take advantage of various opportunities arising from global economic trends, geography, politics and policies of major countries. The increasing demand for maritime transport and the expansion of offshore energy projects create demand for many different types of ships, including container ships, bulk carriers, oil tankers and specialized offshore support vessels. Emerging markets in Asia, including Vietnam, especially China and South Korea, continue to dominate the shipbuilding industry with significant investments of hundreds of billions of dollars to boost shipbuilding capacity and update and apply technological advances.”