Ship propulsion: Value chain
Designed in Europe, built in Asia, scrapped in South Asia
What this tab covers Who does what, from equipment makers to builders, owners, operators, traders and users, with the leading companies at each step.Engine designers in Europe license their designs to builders in Asia; Asian yards build almost all ships; Greek, Chinese and Japanese owners operate them; most scrapping is in South Asia and Türkiye.
The chain
Fuel supply Engine designers Engine builders (licensees) Shipbuilders Wind-assist suppliers Owners and operators Recycling| Stage | What happens | Leading companies |
|---|---|---|
| Fuel supply | Heavy fuel oil supplied 79% of international shipping energy in 2018, with marine diesel and LNG growing. Methanol use was only about 160,000 tonnes. | 1 |
| Engine designers | Design two-stroke and four-stroke engines and license production. Everllence (formerly MAN Energy Solutions) calls itself the world's leading developer of marine engines; Volkswagen agreed in June 2026 to sell a majority stake to Bain Capital. WinGD is the other two-stroke designer. | Everllence (Germany) WinGD (Switzerland) Wartsila (Finland)121523 |
| Engine builders (licensees) | Build the engines under licence, mostly in Korea, China and Japan. | HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (South Korea) Hanwha Engine (South Korea) CSSC Engine (China) CSSC-MES Diesel (China) Mitsui E&S (Japan) Kawasaki Heavy Industries (Japan)1315 |
| Shipbuilders | China, South Korea and Japan completed 91% of world ship tonnage in 2025. CSSC and HD Hyundai are the largest groups by orderbook; Samsung Heavy, Hyundai Heavy and Hanwha Ocean run the largest single yards (Clarksons data). All US nuclear-powered warships come from two yards. | CSSC (China) HD Hyundai (South Korea) Samsung Heavy Industries (South Korea) Hanwha Ocean (South Korea) General Dynamics Electric Boat (United States) HII Newport News Shipbuilding (United States)916178 |
| Wind-assist suppliers | Make rotor sails, suction wings and rigid sails, mostly retrofitted to bulk carriers and ro-ro ships. | Norsepower (Finland) Anemoi Marine Technologies (United Kingdom)67 |
| Owners and operators | About 116,000 ships of 100 GT or more, 2.5 billion dwt (2026). Largest owning countries by dwt: Greece 397 million, China 377 million, Japan 243 million. | 9 |
| Recycling | India, Bangladesh and Türkiye handled 80% of 2025 ship recycling. | 9 |
Sources
- Fourth IMO GHG Study 2020: Executive Summary International Maritime Organization, 2020
- Comparative analysis of the heat balance results of the selected Tier III-compliant gas-fuelled two-stroke main engines (Korlak), Combustion Engines 193(2) Polish Scientific Society of Combustion Engines, 2023
- New Wartsila 31 engine achieves Guinness World Records title Wartsila, 2015
- Norsepower highlights Rotor Sail results at The Motorship Propulsion and Future Fuels webinar Norsepower, 2021
- Anemoi installs rotor sails on Vale's very large ore carrier Ship Technology, 2024
- The United States Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program (2025 edition) US Department of Energy / Naval Reactors, 2025
- Data insights: maritime and other transport UNCTAD, 2026
- Bain Capital acquires Everllence, globally leading engine and turbomachinery manufacturer Bain Capital, 2026
- Licensees: two-stroke marine engines in production Everllence, 2026
- Engine builders WinGD, 2026
- Shipyard surprises in latest rankings: Samsung on top, Oshima above Imabari (Clarksons Research data) Splash247, 2023
- South Korean shipbuilders achieve market share gains for 2025 (Clarksons data) The Maritime Executive, 2026