Present day shipbuilding

China is an emerging shipbuilder overtook South Korea during the 2008-2010 global financial crisis as they won new orders for medium and small-sized container ships.^[16] China is now firmly the world's largest shipbuilder with 45% of the world's total orders, and its quality and technology have improved very much. Today, South Korea is the world's second largest shipbuilding country with a global market share of 29% in 2012. South Korea leads in the production of large vessels such as cruise liners, super tankers, LNG carriers, drill ships, and large container ships. In the 3rd quarter of 2011, South Korea won all 18 orders for LNG carriers, 3 out of 5 drill ships and 5 out of 7 large container ships.^[17]
Japan had been the dominant ship building country from the 1960s through to the end of 1990s but gradually lost its competitive advantage to the emerging industry in South Korea which had the advantages of much cheaper wages, strong government backing and a cheaper currency. South Korean production overtook Japan's in 2003 and Japanese market share has since fallen sharply. The market share of European ship builders began to decline in the 1960s as they lost work to the Japanese in the same way as Japanese builders have lost work to South Koreans more recently; Europe's production is now a tenth of South Korea's and is primarily military, although cruise liners and some cargo ships are still built in Italy, Finland, France, Germany and Denmark. The output of the United States also underwent a similar change.^[18][19]
South Korea's shipyards are highly efficient, with the world's largest shipyard in Ulsan operated by Hyundai Heavy Industries slipping a newly-built, $80 million vessel into the water every four working days.^[18] South Korea's "big three" shipbuilders, Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung Heavy Industries, and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, dominate global shipbuilding, with STX Shipbuilding, Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries, Hanjin Heavy Industries, and Sungdong Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering also ranking among the top ten shipbuilders in the world.^[20] In 2007, STX Shipbuilding further strengthened South Korea's leading position in the industry by acquiring Aker Yards, the largest shipbuilding group in Europe. (The former Aker Yards was renamed STX Europe in 2008). In the first half of 2011, South Korean shipbuilders won new orders to build 25 LNG carriers, out of the total 29 orders placed worldwide during the period.^[21]

World shipbuilding market share by countries (2012)[16]
Rank	Country	Combined GT	%
1	China	67,000,000	45%
2	South Korea	53,000,000	29%
3	Japan	28,000,000	18%
4	European Union	4,500,000	1%
	Rest of the world	11,000,000	7%

Modern shipbuilding manufacturing techniques

Construction of prefabricated module blocks of HMS Dauntless at BAE's Portsmouth Shipyard.

Modern shipbuilding makes considerable use of prefabricated sections. Entire multi-deck segments of the hull or superstructure will be built elsewhere in the yard, transported to the building dock or slipway, then lifted into place. This is known as "block construction". The most modern shipyards pre-install equipment, pipes, electrical cables, and any other components within the blocks, to minimize the effort needed to assemble or install components deep within the hull once it is welded together.
Ship design work, also called naval architecture, may be conducted using a ship model basin. Modern ships, since roughly 1940, have been produced almost exclusively of welded steel. Early welded steel ships used steels with inadequate fracture toughness, which resulted in some ships suffering catastrophic brittle fracture structural cracks (see problems of the Liberty ship). Since roughly 1950, specialized steels such as ABS Steels with good properties for ship construction have been used. Although it is commonly accepted that modern steel has eliminated brittle fracture in ships, some controversy still exists.^[22] Brittle fracture of modern vessels continues to occur from time to time because grade A and grade B steel of unknown toughness or fracture appearance transition temperature (FATT) in ships' side shells can be less than adequate for all ambient conditions.^[23]

Ship repair industry

All ships need maintenance and repairs. A part of these jobs must be carried out under the supervision of the Classification Society. A lot of maintenance is carried out while at sea or in port by ship's staff. However a large number of repair and maintenance works can only be carried out while the ship is out of commercial operation, in a Shiprepair Yard. Prior to undergoing repairs, tankers must dock at a Deballasting Station for completing the tank cleaning operations and pumping ashore its slops (dirty cleaning water and hydrocarbon residues).

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shipbuilding