China’s leading battery makers for electric cars – Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) and Gotion High-tech – are adding momentum to the country’s efforts to build new-energy vessels, with their latest products supplied to large ocean carriers amid an accelerated decarbonisation drive.
Chinese-made pure electric-powered container vessels were also set to extend Beijing’s lead over global rivals in shipbuilding, according to industry officials and analysts.
CATL, the world’s largest electric vehicle (EV) battery producer, announced recently that its self-developed pure electric vessel would sail the oceans in three years, reinforcing the company’s ambitions of building itself into a global new-energy powerhouse.
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Gotion, backed by Volkswagen Group, said early this month that its battery packs had proved strong enough to power a ship with a loading capacity of 132 standard containers. The vessel, known as Puffer Fish Blue 01, developed by China’s Wuhu Shipyard and Sandianshui New Energy Technology, had been certified by the China Classification Society, a professional body for ship classification, it added.
“Their investment and efforts to build pure electric container vessels show China’s increasing influence in the global shipbuilding industry,” said Xiong Hao, assistant general manager at Shanghai Jump International Shipping. “It remains to be seen whether electric vessels will be widely accepted by global container liners.”
People visit a model of a nuclear-powered container ship at Marintec China 2025 in Shanghai on December 2, 2025. Photo: Getty Images alt=People visit a model of a nuclear-powered container ship at Marintec China 2025 in Shanghai on December 2, 2025. Photo: Getty Images>
CATL, which holds a 38 per cent share of the global EV battery market this year, began developing the shipbuilding applications in 2017 and has since supplied batteries to 900 vessels, all operating in rivers.
The company said in a statement that Yujian 77, China’s first pure-electric cruise ship fitted with its high-performance battery, had offered zero-emission and low-noise experiences to tourists since its operations started in July.
CATL’s battery deliveries to shipbuilders accounted for about 40 per cent of the global electric vessel market at present, according to its statement.
In November, subsidiary Autoflight, a drone maker, launched its waterborne vertiport to support the electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) sector. The battery-powered vessel extends eVTOL infrastructure across vast water areas, providing drones or flying cars an alternative site for take-off and landing.
Gotion’s batteries used in container ships support swap technology, which allows container vessels to quickly exchange spent battery packs for charged ones. The company ranked the seventh-largest EV battery maker worldwide in the first three quarters of this year, with a 3.7 per cent market share, according to Seoul-based consultancy SNE Research.
The world’s first pure electric container vessel – with capacity for 700 standard containers – was delivered by Cosco Shipping Heavy Industry (Yangzhou) to sister company Cosco Shipping Lines at the end of 2023.
China’s shipbuilding firms held 65 per cent of global orders in deadweight tonnage terms during the first three quarters of 2025, compared with about 75 per cent a year earlier, according to shipping services provider Clarksons.
Shipbuilding is also an area where US President Donald Trump aims to challenge China’s dominance. He has proposed investing tens of billions of dollars to revitalise American shipyards.
Chinese shipyards, facing a decline in orders, were expected to divert more capacity towards new-energy and advanced vessels to maintain profitability as they faced mounting challenges from South Korean counterparts, industry officials said.
South Korea’s shipbuilding orders jumped this year, with its share of the global market nearly doubling to 25.9 per cent in the first three quarters from 13.3 per cent a year ago, Clarksons data showed.
State-owned Jiangnan Shipyard (Group) plans to build the world’s first nuclear-powered container vessel as early as 2035, a move likely to cement China’s dominance in an industry that is shifting to renewable energy.
Lin Qingshan, vice-president of the Shanghai-based shipbuilder, told the Post in early December that a 25,000-container vessel relying on nuclear power was being designed.
The vessels designed by Jiangnan would be powered by a thorium-based molten salt reactor with an output of 200 megawatts, Lin said. He added that it was one of six internationally recognised fourth-generation reactor designs, with a lifespan of 40 years.
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2025 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
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