한국 조선산업은 1970년대 초반 세계 조선시장에 진입한 이후 1980년대 주요 조선국으로 부상하였으며, 1990년대 중반 대규모 설비 증설을 완료함으로써 세계 제 2위의 자리에 오르게 되었다. 이후 풍부한 숙련인력, 다양한 건조 경험, 설비효율 증대, 건조기술의 지속적인 향상으로 시장에서 차지하는 비중을 늘려나갔다. 1993년 사상 최초로 한국이 세계 1위의 수주량을 기록한 이래 2000년 이후에는 사실상 수주량, 건조량, 수주 잔량 면에서 일본을 추월하였다.한편, 중국은 1970년대 말 개혁개방 정책으로 조선업의 현대화 기틀을 다졌고 1980년대 말 이후에는 조선업을 수출산업으로 지정하여 국가적인 지원 아래 발전정책을 강력하게 추진하고 있다. 1995년 이후에는 막대한 내수 물량과 저임 노동력에 기반하여 낮은 건조비용으로 세계시장에서 빠르게 부상하고 있다. 중국의 경제성장과 이에 따른 해상 물동량 증가는 각종 선박의 수요를 증대시켰는데 중국은 이러한 상황에 대응하기 위하여 대규모 조선산업의 신설과 건조능력을 향상시켜 왔다.현재 중국 조선산업은 정부의 주도아래 국가전략산업으로 육성되고 있으며 기술수준과 관리체계도 크게 개선되고 있다. 중국 조선소 생산성 수준은 한국의 38%로 아직 낙후되어 있으나 총체적인 노력으로 생산성 향상에 적극적이다. 하지만 노동비용은 한국의 20%로 노동경쟁력은 절대적 우위에 있다. 한편, 한국 조선산업 경쟁력은 우선적으로 임금 면에서 경쟁력이 떨어지면서 약화되고 있는 실정이다. 한국 대형 조선사의 근로자 평균 연봉은 중국 근로자의 6배 이상으로 임금수준이 빠른 속도로 상승한 반면 숙련된 노동력은 급감하고 있다. 특히 숙련 용접공 감소로 심각한 인력 발생이 우려되고 있다. 중국은 앞으로 10년간 가격 경쟁력을 바탕으로 기술혁신과 인적자원 개발을 통해 조선산업의 경쟁우위를 강화시킬 것이다.
Korea was a new entrant into global shipbuilding market in the early 1970's and later took a position as one of major shipbuilding countries in 1980's. During the middle 1990's, Korea has finished expansion of large- scale shipbuilding plants, and has taken a successful market position of world No. 2 shipbuilding country. Afterwards, Korea has steadily expanded its market influence around the world owing to its abundant experienced personnel, various shipbuilding experiences, enhanced plant efficiency and ever-improving shipbuilding techniques. As of Year 1993, it attained to world No. 1 receiver of shipbuilding orders for the first time in the history of Korean shipbuilding industry. And after 2000, Korea has virtually exceeded Japan in the aspect of business results such as shipbuilding orders received, completed vessels and residual amount of shipbuilding orders. On the other hand, China consolidated the foundation of its modernized shipbuilding industry owing to its reform and open-door policies in the late 1970's. After the late 1980, it set shipbuilding industry as a major part of national export driver and has energetically promoted a series of development policies for national shipbuilding industry under the support of national authority. After 1995, China is spotlighted as a rapidly rising entrant into global shipbuilding market owing to its enormous domestic shipbuilding demands and low shipbuilding cost based on low labor cost. Increasing marine traffic volume under the influence of Chinese economic growth has created increasing demands for a variety of vessels. In order to timely cope with such circumstances, China has made efforts to newly establish large-scale shipbuilding industry complexes and enhance its national shipbuilding capacity. In China, the shipbuilding industry is now fostered as a major part of national strategic industry under the governmental control, and has also improved its technical quality and control system significantly. Although Chinese shipyards remain underdeveloped in their productivity as low as 38% of Korean shipyards, Chinese shipbuilders have positively made collaborative efforts to improve their productivity. However, China has absolute competitive advantages of labor cost over Korea (just 20% of labor cost in Korean shipbuilding industry). On the other hand, Korean shipbuilding industry has faced its weakening competitive advantages in the aspect of labor cost among others. Mean annual pay of workers for Korean large-scale shipbuilders is ever-rising in such a rapid pace as is over 6 times than that of Chinese shipbuilding workers, but the former shipbuilders have been rapidly losing experienced manpower. Particularly, there are potential concerns about serious loss of manpower due to decreasing number of experienced welding technicians in Korean shipbuilding industry. During the following one decade, it is expected that China will build up its competitive advantages in shipbuilding industry by realizing technical innovations and developing human resources on the foundation of pricing competitiveness.