Aker Kvaerner stake in Romania yard puts it in super-league.

(From Lloyds List)

ANYONE looking to place a bet on a growth industry in Europe over the next decade would be ill-advised to take a flutter on shipbuilding and its increasingly empty yards.

There has been a chill wind blowing from the East for well over three decades and China is widely expected to deliver a near-fatal blow to the continent's remaining yards. Hammering together a new European-centred shipbuilding empire amid this macro-economic gloom would seem brave, if not forlorn.

In almost 16 months since its formation, Norway's Aker Kvaerner Yards has struck a strategy it believes will hold its berth at the shipbuilders' top table.

It is a risky venture for colourful Norwegian billionaire Kjell Inge Rokke, whose money and …