Health or desperation?

(From Lloyds List)

A HEALTHIER climate for European shipbuilding or limited choice as a result of all the preferred East Asian yards being booked up solid with owners desperate for ships?

It is a matter of perspective. But such interesting questions have been posed in Hamburg this week at the Shipbuilding, Machinery and Maritime Technology exhibition, where matters of hardware are rigorously addressed.

The fact that European yards appear to be better employed than for many years was a matter of satisfaction to the Community of European Shipyards Associations, whose chairman, Fincantieri president Corrado Antonini, said the share attributed to Europe had grown to 14% of the world total.

But it would be hugely premature to suggest that this means that European shipyards have somehow managed to reverse the spiral of decline which has afflicted them for half a century.

There is literally no sector of the industry, no ship type on earth which can be defined as being 'reserved' for European technology. Sure, South Korea and China have yet to become seriously engaged in the passengership world, and yet that is probably a matter of choice.

The transfer of technology that has enabled South Korean yards to churn out LNG ships and Chinese yards to bid for sophisticated chemical vessels and big containerships is to all intents and purposes complete. The effort is now to catch up with Japanese productivity, and that is but a matter of time.