This photo taken on March 2, 2023 shows a cargo ship at a shipbuilding enterprise in Yuanjiang, central China's Hunan Province. (Xinhua/Chen Zhenhai)

China's shipbuilding industry continued to lead globally in the first quarter of 2023, boasting the biggest international market share in terms of output, as well as new and holding orders, official data showed Wednesday.

The country's shipbuilding output hit 9.17 million deadweight tonnes (dwt) during the period, accounting for 43.5 percent of the world's total, data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology showed.

New orders, another major indicator of the shipbuilding industry, rose 53 percent year on year to 15.18 million dwt, with a global market share of 62.9 percent.

The sector's holding orders totaled 114.52 million dwt at the end of March, expanding 15.6 percent year on year. The volume represented 50.8 percent of the global market share.