BEIJING -- China's shipbuilding industry saw a strong performance in the first quarter of the year while maintaining a large global share in terms of completion volume, and new and holding orders, official data shows.

The completion volume of shipbuilding in China, rising 39.8 percent year-on-year to 9.79 million deadweight tons (dwt) in the first three months, accounted for 43.4 percent of the global market share, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

New shipbuilding orders surged 251.7 percent from the same period last year to 17.2 million dwt, taking up 47.4 percent of the global market share.

The volume of holding orders, down 1.4 percent year on year to 78.48 million dwt by the end of March, accounted for 44.6 percent of the global market share.