Il 10 Giugno scorso si è tenuta ad Amsterdam l’Assemblea Generale del CESA (Committee of European Shipyards’ Associations)nel corso della quale i principali operatori del settore cantieristico hanno discusso la situazione del mercato e le possibili politiche di settore.
Gli oltre 50 partecipanti hanno inoltre dato luogo a numerose sessioni specialistiche nel contesto dell’Assemblea.

Di seguito, il comunicato stampa rilasciato dal CESA alla fine dei lavori.

Community of European Shipyards’ Association gathered in Amsterdam

Using the Challenging Times to Turn
Weaknesses into Strengths
During the CESA Annual General Assembly in Amsterdam, the main players among the European shipbuilding and shiprepair industry discussed the latest market and policy developments. Over 50 participants attended a series of sessions around the General Assembly.

The global order volume for new ships over the past six quarters has totalled only 22 million cgt compared to more than 100 million cgt for the six previous quarters. With such a decline, the world shipbuilding industry is certainly among the sectors worst affected of the financial and economic crisis. However, there are clear signs that the recovery has started. Growing cargo volumes, improved earnings for shipowners and also slowly increasing new order volumes are much welcome and encouraging news. Also, the maintenance, repair and conversion yards, which provide employment to about 125,000 people in Europe, report about only moderately reduced business near 2007 levels, with early indications of modest improvement in 2010.

The situation of most newbuilding yards in the world is expected to remain difficult for some time as orderbooks continue to deplete affecting the entire value chain in shipbuilding. Also in Europe, despite a much larger share of production for generally sound market segments with healthy business prospects, a growing number of yards are facing production disruptions due to lack of orders. Structural characteristics of a significantly smaller average size of European producers and the absence of strategic government interventions, make the European industry landscape more vulnerable. In view of declining market shares in various maritime sectors, Europe must collectively pay due attention to safeguard its maritime competences and capabilities.

The General Assembly elected Bernard Meyer, Managing Partner of Meyer Werft, Germany as new Chairman after Kommer Damen of Damen Shipyards, The Netherlands, completed his two year term of office. Jacques Hardelay, CEO of STX France and Frederico Spranger, President of Lisnave, were elected as CESA Vice-Chairmen.

In his farewell speech, the parting Chairman Kommer Damen said: “The industry is consolidating and several yards will maybe not survive. During this process, it is important that policy makers are assuring a level playing field for the shipbuilding industry, in Europe as well as in the world, and will not turn to disturbing subsidies, so that consolidation will work out in such a way that the best companies will survive. Besides that, there should be stimulus for a high level of innovation. By continuous innovation, we will stay market leader in the niches, we can compete against yards in emerging countries with substantial lower labour costs. I expect that together with our subcontractors and suppliers we have a unique and sustainable infrastructure and know how in the following markets:
Cruise ships
Naval ships
Dredgers
Offshore energy
Mega yachts
Small Vessels
Repair and maintenance”

The General Assembly thanked Kommer Damen for his engaged and effective Chairmanship.

Also the new Chairman pointed to the positive factors: a significant devaluation of the Euro as major competitiveness boost for the exporters and the strong rise in fuel costs and more stringent technical regulations, which give more opportunities to innovative solutions than ever before. Bernard Meyer said “CESA must get the message across that this industry has all ingredients to success but must get the chance to face the fierce competition also from government concepts in many parts of the world.”