AI screening example · run on October 19, 2026

Shipbuilding stocks,
across all of Japan.

Japan has decided to double its shipbuilding output, and support for shipyard investment is under way. We looked for shipbuilders and makers of ship engines and equipment whose orders are growing. Katana kept 62 companies whose business descriptions mention shipbuilding or marine equipment, and AI read each one and supported 9.

Background

Japan decided to double its shipbuilding output.

The government aims to raise domestic shipbuilding output in 2035 to 18 million gross tons, double the 2024 level. Japan built about half of the world's ships in the early 1990s, but its share of orders fell below 10% in 2024. A shipbuilding revival fund has approved support for investment by eight groups, including Imabari Shipbuilding, Namura Shipbuilding, Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Mitsubishi Shipbuilding, with public and private investment of about ¥900 billion. On October 2, 2026, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries announced it would spend about ¥100 billion to expand capacity at its Shimonoseki shipyard, with about ¥40 billion in subsidies from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

Rising orders already show in Japanese annual reports. Naikai Zosen won ¥80.3 billion in orders, including nine new ships, up 67.4% from the prior year, and its backlog grew to ¥134.3 billion, covering 25 new ships. Hanshin Diesel Works, a ship engine maker, grew orders 34.2% on more main engine orders.

So which shipbuilders and makers of ship engines and equipment are seeing orders grow? We searched annual reports with Katana.

Source：Over ¥1 trillion in public and private investment to revive Japanese shipbuilding (Jiji Press, October 14, 2026, in Japanese)

01 / Input

The companies we wanted to find.

“We want companies that build ships, or manufacture marine equipment such as ship engines, propellers, navigation systems or deck machinery, as a separate segment or at least 20% of revenue, and whose orders or order backlog for ships or marine equipment increased in the latest fiscal year.”

We used a word condition to keep companies whose annual report business description mentions shipbuilding or marine equipment, turned this profile into two questions entered in English, and had the AI read each report, question by question.

02 / Conditions

The conditions we applied across Japan.

Quantitative

Katana computes its metrics for every company.

Annual report business description mentions “shipbuilding” (造船)
Or “for ships” (船用)
Or “marine equipment” (舶用)

Qualitative

AI reads each annual report and judges support and counterevidence.

Does the company build ships, or manufacture marine equipment such as ship engines, propellers, navigation systems or deck machinery, and is this business a separate reportable segment or at least 20% of revenue?
Does the annual report state that orders received or order backlog for ships or marine equipment increased in the latest fiscal year?

The questions were entered in English and judged in order.

~3,800listed companies

62match the numbers

9AI judged as supported

Katana

read the filings and supported 9.

03 / Results

9 supported. We dropped 2, added 1 that needed review, and checked all 8 against the source.

Of 62 companies, 9 were supported, 5 need review and 48 had counterevidence. Below are the 8, in order: shipyards, ship engine makers, then marine equipment makers.

Namura Shipbuilding7014 · Transportation Equipment

Completed 21 ships and won 15, lifting its backlog 7.1% to ¥422.1 billion.Filing ↗A shipyard focused on bulk carriers. New ships are 79.0% of sales, and its backlog equals about 3.4 years of new ship sales.
Naikai Zosen7018 · Transportation Equipment

Won ¥80.3 billion in orders, up 67.4%, including RORO cargo ships and transport ships, and its backlog rose 33.7% to ¥134.3 billion.Filing ↗A shipyard for ferries and RORO ships, which load cargo on wheels. Ships are its single segment, and it plans to expand capacity with government-subsidized investment.
Japan Engine Corporation6016 · Transportation Equipment

Holds a large backlog of main engines, led by its fuel-saving LSH series, and keeps its plant running at a high rate.Filing ↗Makes main engines that drive ships. Its marine engine backlog rose 24.0% to ¥26.7 billion, and it delivered its first ammonia-fueled engine in October 2025.
Daihatsu Infinearth6023 · Transportation Equipment

Won large and dual-fuel engines, mainly for container ships, and its backlog stood well above a year earlier.Filing ↗A ship engine maker. Marine engines are 81.6% of sales, and that business's backlog rose 53.6% to ¥102.3 billion.
Hanshin Diesel Works6018 · Transportation Equipment

Orders rose 34.2% to ¥19.0 billion on more main engine orders.Filing ↗Judged as needing review. A ship engine maker mainly serving Japan's coastal cargo ships. Its main engine backlog rose 71.2% to ¥12.0 billion.
Akasaka Diesels6022 · Machinery

Sales rose 6.2% to ¥8.3 billion as marine engine, parts and repair sales grew.Filing ↗A ship engine maker. Marine engine orders fell 43.2%, but the backlog rose 48.9% to ¥6.1 billion. It licensed Japan Engine's UE engines to make and sell.
Tokyo Keiki7721 · Precision Instruments

Marine equipment sales grew on steady demand for new-ship equipment and high demand for maintenance.Filing ↗An instrument maker with a marine equipment business at 22.4% of sales, where orders rose 10.6% and backlog 28.1%. Its largest business is defense and communications equipment.
Nitchitsu7021 · Machinery

Sales of hatch covers for bulk carriers grew sharply, and hull block work stayed strong.Filing ↗Makes hatch covers and hull blocks, the sections ships are built from. Machinery, including marine equipment, is 69.2% of sales, and it is expanding its marine equipment plant.

Note: among the supported companies, we dropped Techno Alpha, which buys marine equipment from other makers and sells it to shipyards rather than making it, and Kawasaki Heavy Industries, whose energy solution and marine segment, which includes ships, is 18.8% of sales, below 20%. We added Hanshin Diesel Works, which needed review but is a single-business ship engine maker whose main engine orders rose 52.3%. Furuno Electric gets 86.2% of sales from its marine business, but its report does not say whether orders rose, so it stays as needing review.

View detailed results

These results are from October 19, 2026. Qualitative judgments use the filings available at that time, while quantitative screening uses the latest financial data.

04 / Takeaway

Replacement demand will come. Profit is another matter.

Shipbuilding demand follows a cycle set by the life of ships. Reading the annual reports of the 62 companies, Katana found that 9 cite the replacement or aging of ships as a reason for orders. Namura Shipbuilding's report, for example, says demand is expected to keep rising as the many ships completed around 2010 are replaced by fuel-efficient, clean-energy and zero-emission ships. Japan's transport ministry also shows that global ship completions peaked in 2011, when ships ordered before the 2008 financial crisis were nearly all delivered. Another ministry document notes that, driven by growing seaborne trade and replacement demand for the many ships built in the past, forecasters expect shipbuilding demand to rise to around 100 million gross tons in the 2030s. In tankers, about 21% of the fleet is already over 20 years old, and orders placed through July 2026 already exceeded the previous annual record set in 2006.

But being booked is not the same as being profitable. Here is how many years of sales each company's backlog covers, with operating margin four years ago and now (backlog divided by that business's sales in the latest fiscal year; margins from Katana's annual data).

Company	Backlog	Operating margin (4 years ago → latest)
Namura Shipbuilding	3.4 years	−11.4% → 17.7%
Naikai Zosen	2.9 years	1.4% → 6.5%
Akasaka Diesels	2.4 years	0.5% → −2.3%
Japan Engine	1.9 years	4.4% → 18.4%
Daihatsu Infinearth	1.4 years	3.6% → 8.7%
Hanshin Diesel Works	1.4 years	5.4% → 5.9%
Mitsui E&S	1.0 years	−1.7% → 10.7%

Namura Shipbuilding posted operating losses for six straight years, from the year ended March 2017 to the year ended March 2022. Ships take two to three years from order to delivery, and the price is set when the order is taken. Namura's report itself says that orders taken to keep the yard busy can be loss-making. Its margin in the 17% range today comes from building ships ordered when prices were high; the size of a backlog does not promise profit. Akasaka Diesels grew its backlog 48.9%, yet its operating margin is negative.

A drop in orders does not mean less work, either. Orders for Mitsui E&S's marine propulsion systems, such as ship engines, fell 38.5%, so Katana's judging found counterevidence. But the drop came from booking several large engines at once the year before, and sales in the same business actually rose 10.5%. For shipbuilding stocks, rather than one year's orders, look at how many years of work the backlog holds and at what price that work was taken, as seen in margin trends.

Your stock-picking, handed straight to AI.

Complex theses, your own selection rules. Katana narrows companies with its own metrics, and AI reads annual reports to judge qualitative conditions. The selection you used to do one company at a time, AI now runs across the Japanese market.

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