China received the largest number of shipbuilding deals during the first three quarters of 2017.

Data from UK consulting film Clarksons shows that Chinese shipyards agreed contracts totalling 5.09m Compensated Gross Tonnage (CGT) between January and September.

South Korea's 4.05m CGT placed it in second place, with Japan (1.47m CGT) a distant third. The combined global total during the first three quarters soared to 15.93m CGT, compared to 9.79m CGT in 2016.

In August, the China State Shipbuilding Corporation signed a US$1.44bn deal with French containership giant CMA CGM to build six of the world's largest container ships (22,000 Twenty-foot Equivalent Units).