It should come as no surprise that one of the leading South Korean companies recently celebrated delivering its 5,000th ship in half a century, which translates to an average of one hundred ships being built per year. As of today, South Korea boasts having the second-largest shipbuilding industry in the world. In 2024, South Korean shipyards delivered over 230 commercial vessels, accounting for nearly 21% of global output. Most new orders for South Korean-made vessels are focused primarily on more sophisticated LNG carriers; however, demand for more basic petroleum tankers and container ships has also been gaining momentum.
The draw for South Korean shipyards is their ability to incorporate advanced technologies and streamlined workflows to deliver state-of-the-art ships at cost and on time. An Aloha class 3,600 twenty-foot-equivalent-unit (TEU) container ship built in Philadelphia, for instance, costs about $334.5 million. In contrast, an ultra-large container vessel (ULCV) at 24,000 TEU is priced at $272 million if built in South Korea. That is, a ship over six times the carrying capacity is $61.5 million cheaper if built in South Korea. Certain ships, such as LNG carriers, were last launched from U.S. shipyards in 1980, whereas they are the preferred order of choice for builders in South Korea.
South Korean shipbuilders have also been recognized for their ability to deliver naval vessels at a fraction of the cost compared to U.S. shipyards. The average time from start to finish for a complete build-out of Aegis destroyers in the U.S. yards (DDG Flight III) has been about nine years, with each ship costing over $2.5 billion. In comparison, a comparable South Korean KDX-III Batch II, ROKS Jeongjo the Great, cost about $565 million and took only about five years to complete from the time of contract award in 2019 until official commissioning in November 2024. While the KDX-III is not an exact carbon copy of the latest DDG Flight III, they share similar weapons systems and features as to be a comparable equivalent. Yet, the South Korean version is nearly one-fifth the price of the U.S. variant and takes nearly half the time to deliver.
Methodology
The informational graphic shown here provides a look into the capacity of South Korean shipyards in both commercial and naval markets. Many features of the vessel can be customized and varied according to buyer requests; hence, the price and build out times are subject to adjustments. Accordingly, this infographic does not provide a complete picture of all ships that South Korean shipyards can produce. But the summary does provide a reference point to get a sense of South Korea’s shipbuilding capacity.
The data was collected from open sources, which were referenced up to early December 2025. Note that the average build time represents the amount of time taken from keel-laying to delivery. Typical time from order to delivery is longer. It is worth noting that cargo capacity for certain ships (i.e., roll-on/roll-off and container vessels) is represented in cubic meters instead of car equivalent units (CEU) or TEU, which tends to be the norm. Note that the graphical summary uses total displacement for naval ships while dead weight tonnage (DWT) is used to represent the size of commercial ships. Total displacement is the weight of a fully loaded vessel, while light displacement is the weight of an empty ship. The difference between the total and light displacement is DWT.
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ASR I
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ASR II
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FFG-I
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FFG-II
Namu Wiki. “대구급 호위함” {Daegu Class Frigate}. Accessed Dec 2025. https://namu.wiki/w/%EB%8C%80%EA%B5%AC%EA%B8%89%20%ED%98%B8%EC%9C%84%ED%95%A8
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FFG-III
Namu Wiki. “충남급 호위함” [Chungnam Class Frigate]. Accessed Dec 2025. https://namu.wiki/w/%EC%B6%A9%EB%82%A8%EA%B8%89%20%ED%98%B8%EC%9C%84%ED%95%A8
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KDX-I
Namu Wiki. “광개토대왕급 구축함” [Gwanggeto the Great Class Detroyer]. Accessed Dec 2025. https://en.namu.wiki/w/%EA%B4%91%EA%B0%9C%ED%86%A0%EB%8C%80%EC%99%95%EA%B8%89%20%EA%B5%AC%EC%B6%95%ED%95%A8
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KDX-II
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KSS-I
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KSS-II
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KSS-III
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LNG Carrier
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Oil Tanker
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Container Ships
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Bulkers
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Ro-Ro
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