Improving Global Quality of Life

9 Needs and challenges of major industry sectors for future applications
9.8 Shipbuilding sector
9.8.1 Industry trends
During the previous decades and due to the globalisation and progress of technology, the shipbuilding
industry in Japan, South Korea and Europe, has undergone a fundamental shift from a mainly labourintensive
industry to a capital and know-how dominated high-tech industry, relying on the availability of a
highly-skilled workforce. Currently, PR China is in third place of the world ranking list and is producing 13%
of the total world tonnage. South Korea is the largest shipbuilder in the world, with 38%, followed by Japan
with 28% of the world tonnage.
The booming shipbuilding industry at this moment differs markedly from the oil tanker boom, 35 years ago,
a trend that was driven primarily by growth in the oil business - but collapsed during the oil crisis. The time
in shipbuilding today is not dependent on a single product, but on the growth in global trade, producing a
growing demand for new ships. It should be noted that this development is driven to a large extent, by the
exploding economic growth of China.
The shipyard industry is dominated by Japan, South Korea and China with close to 90% of all ships built in
these three countries (Figure 9.13). China is committed to become the world largest supplier of ships by
investing heavily in new shipyards and upgrading the existing ones. The increase in Chinese market share is
already now demonstrating the commitment. During the last two years, China has increased its market share
by 4% at the sacrifice of Japan and South Korea. The European shipyards are however relentlessly fighting
for survival by developing and introducing more efficient manufacturing processes. The Meyer Shipyard
in Germany has made large investment in a panel-line, in which the laser hybrid welding is applied. There
are few other shipyards in Europe using the laser process. So far the Finnish, German, French and Italian
shipyards have almost 100% of the market for cruisers. Finland is judged to have one fourth of this market
but in total Finland has only 0.4% of the world market in all types of ships.
The struggle to retain market share in this world market, is forcing European shipyards to make structural
changes, with the objective of increasing productivity and improving flexibility. The basis for reaching a
sufficient increase of productivity is among others, the ability to introduce and apply advanced manufacturing
technologies and improved instrumentation. Europe is building the most complicated ships in the world and
is the basis of maritime innovations. Two problems exist in many European shipyards with a fully booked
order intake:
To find initial capacity, because delivery times threaten to be too long. It is true, that increasing
capacity is not always the only solution. Also the order book of the supply companies, are full and
not always able to deliver in time.
Shipyards have a number of vacancies, which are difficult to fill.
The number of students coming from technical schools is causing considerable concern and too few trained
people are available. There is a good reason that the sector’s future plans must focus on training and
education. This has stagnated in the past few decades, even so, this is the foundation for the future. One has
to stay on top of this, from high school to Technical University.
Through Optimum Use and Innovation of Welding and Joining Technologies
Improving Global Quality of Life
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