As VSM emphasised in its latest news, the maritime industry must become more of a European issue. Read the VSM press release here, written by Dr Reinhard Lüken, Managing Director of the VSM.

The European Commission will shortly be presenting its new Maritime Industrial Strategy - largely at Germany's insistence. A look back shows that this step is overdue: the industry has been largely neglected in Brussels for at least ten years. Apart from individual research programmes, the maritime industry has hardly played a role. In the Directorate-General for Industry (Internal Market), there was no maritime officer in the responsible „Mobility“ unit - effectively the automotive industry - for years. This only changed in 2024. Although the Directorate-General for Transport has its own Directorate for Shipping and Ports, it does not have a clear industrial policy focus. The last industrial policy approach dates back to 2013 and was essentially a continuation of the LeaderSHIP 2015 initiative from 2003.

Aggressive Chinese industrial policy

At the time, hardly anyone could have imagined the force with which the world would change. In 2002, the Chinese Prime Minister announced the goal of making China the leading shipbuilding nation by 2015 at the state-owned shipyard group CSSC. At that time, China produced around 1.5 million CGTs, while Europe produced more than three times as many. By 2010, China had already surpassed the 20 million CGT mark and taken over the top global position.

We recognised China's rise early on - but only recognised its security policy dimension late on. We interpreted the aggressive industrial policy primarily as an economic modernisation project: new jobs, export promotion, low freight rates due to overcapacity. The result was a shipping crisis that lasted for years and billions in losses, particularly at German state banks.

The fact that the massive expansion of civilian capacities also strengthened naval shipbuilding was underestimated. From today's perspective, there is much to suggest that this was the strategically decisive motivation for the hundreds of billions in state investment. Western customers - partly supported by public funds - also contributed indirectly to financing the increase in capacity.

Largest navy in the world

China has had the world's largest navy since 2021 and it continues to grow rapidly. In civilian shipbuilding, China now produces more than 500 times as many ships as the USA. This dominance is seen as a strategic weakness of the American armed forces in the geopolitical competition. In comparison, Europe is in a much better position - both in civilian and military shipbuilding. However, capacities here have also shrunk significantly in recent decades. In Germany, for example, the number of shipyards has halved from 82 since reunification.

Innovative strength in Germany

The only option for our companies was to move forward, into highly complex specialised shipbuilding and high-performance maritime systems and equipment. The fact that this was so successful despite all the distortions of competition speaks in favour of the innovative strength of Germany as a business location. However, high-end expertise alone is not enough in a world of growing tensions. We also need sufficient volume, sufficient industrial capacity to ensure the high performance of the entire cluster. This requires a change in policy in order to stop and sustainably reverse the long-term trend of capacity loss. The European Maritime Industry Strategy must be measured against this: does it provide real, bold impetus - or does it merely repeat familiar, ineffective approaches?