VSM publishes association news

The German Shipbuilding and Ocean Industries Association VSM has published the 76th edition of its association news. In the foreword, Managing Director Dr Reinhard Lüken strikes an alarming note. marineforum publishes the wording of his warning to politicians.

Dear readers,

Developments in the shipbuilding market remain highly alarming. Although significantly more ships are being ordered again due to the greatly improved revenue situation of many shipping companies, particularly in the container business, this is almost exclusively in China and Korea, the two nations that have been pouring the subsidy horns over their shipbuilders for years. Over 85% of all orders worldwide in 2021 are distributed between the two. Even Japan, which still maintains high domestic demand, no longer contributes 10%. And while the global order volume in 2021 was more than twice as high as in the previous year, European shipyards lost another third of their newbuilding orders, even compared to the very weak previous year.

We are well on the way to losing more and more skills. We can't go on like this!

No continent needs the maritime economy more than Europe. The growing dependencies must be counteracted now. This applies to everyone in the value chain: shipowners, shipyards, suppliers - they are dependent on each other and can only be successful together in the long term. Almost the entire global merchant fleet, around 100,000 seagoing vessels, currently runs on heavy fuel oil, the cheapest and dirtiest fuel of all. Converting the fleet to climate neutrality will be a huge task that requires enormous investment. Intelligent solutions will be particularly important to limit the increase in operating costs by maximising efficiency. The expertise of the European shipbuilding industry is therefore urgently needed!

Therefore, the most important political measure now is to create attractive conditions for investments as quickly as possible and to tie these to implementation in Europe. This could make the Green Deal a reality. The new funding programme for refuelling ships for LNG and renewable fuels that has just been published is a step in the right direction.

Have fun reading!

Dr Reinhard Lüken
(VSM Managing Director)