(Yicai) July 16 -- The number of new shipbuilding orders in China soared 44 percent in the first six months of this year from a year earlier.

China's shipbuilding orders reached 54.22 million deadweight tons in the six months ended June 30, accounting for nearly 75 percent of the global total, up 8 percentage points from a year ago, according to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released today.

The country's shipbuilding output jumped 18.4 percent to 25.02 million DWT, making up 55 percent of the global total, the data showed. Meanwhile, holding orders at Chinese shipbuilders rose 39 percent to 171.55 million DWT, accounting for 59 percent of the world's total.

China's shipbuilding output, new orders, and orders in hand accounted for 50 percent, 67 percent, and 55 percent of the global total in terms of deadweight tonnage last year.

Among the 18 major ship types, China has ranked first in the world in new orders for 14 of them. Due to the high volume of orders for high-end ship types, the profit of the country's shipbuilding sector nearly doubled in the five months ended May 31 from a year earlier.

Chinese large-scale shipbuilders' net profit surged nearly 188 percent to CNY16 billion (USD2.2 billion) in the first five months from a year ago, while their revenue rose 26 percent to CNY253.2 billion (USD34.8 billion).

Editor: Martin Kadiev