Press Release: Commission’s seventh report on shipbuilding emphasises problematic market situation

The difficulties in world shipbuilding are growing, as evidenced by a further decrease in orders for new vessels in the major shipbuilding regions in 2002, says the European Commission in its seventh report to the Council on the situation of the world shipbuilding market. This report, which completes the Commission's analysis of the shipbuilding market in 2002, attributes the slow market to past over-supply, slowing economies around the world, the effects of 11 September and political insecurity in the Middle East. In particular the most important market segments for EU yards developed negatively. For EU producers, order intake in 2002 was down by over 50% compared to 2001 and over 70% compared to 2000. As a result, EU shipyards are now rapidly running out of work and a number of bankruptcies and lay-offs have already occurred. The overall market share of EU shipyards has dropped to 7%, from 13% in 2001 and 19% in 2000.

http://ec.europa.eu/comm/enterprise/maritime/shipbuilding_market/doc/com2003-232_en.pdf http://ec.europa.eu/comm/enterprise/maritime/shipbuilding_market/doc/com2003-232_en.pdf

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