“Deeds not words” to ease European plight
VSM's Werner Lundt says Asians still eying specialist European sectors
A top German shipbuilding official has urged political decision-makers not only in Berlin but also in Brussels to let urgent deeds follow rhetoric and help Europe’s shipbuilders prevent the closure of more yards.
Tom Todd writes: Addressing the Hamburg Nautical Association after a year in which German shipbuilding production hit another new low, the head of the Hamburg-based German shipbuilding association, VSM, Werner Lundt, said politicians must recognise the high-level strategic significance of Europe’s shipbuilding and shipping sectors as indispensible key industries.
This acknowledgment needed to be followed up by action so that new orders could be won and further company closures avoided, he said.
Lundt noted that despite all the world difficulties, global newbuilding was at a record level. More ships had been produced world-wide in the first nine months of 2011 than ever before in such a period, he said.
More than 90% of all ships were now being built in Asia and yet despite that overwhelming dominance, the few remaining specialist sectors in Europe were still under threat from the Asian yards, he said. He noted two cruise ships ordered in Japan recently by Germany’s AIDA Cruises and said they were being built at about €100million below cost. He said that demonstrated Asian determination to dominate that sector too.
“Over-capacity and subsidies are currently also making competition even tougher”, Lundt declared, noting also that while raw material and steel prices were going up, newbuilding prices were declining. In addition, financing was becoming increasingly difficult to get as banks demanded more own capital from borrowers.
Official figures for German newbuilding production in the whole of 2011 have still not been released, but Lundt said home yards had turned out 22 vessels of 395,000cgt worth €1.8billion in the nine months up to the end of September last. Also as of that date yards had orders in hand for 71 ships of 1.6million cgt worth €8billion, he said.
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