Page 8: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (May 2000)

Investment in Design by David Tinsley, technical editor

Resilient Dutch Network

As a bastion of ship production in the under 10,000-dwt-vessel range, the industry in the northern Netherlands continues to demonstrate true global competitiveness in its chosen fields of endeavor. While much of European shipbuilding bewails the intensified onslaught from the Orient, impinging on an ever-greater range of ship types and ever-widening circle of European shipowning communities, the yards and allied firms in the northernmost Dutch provinces are putting down building blocks in new market areas.

Key points of the investment-under- written drive to increase market reach and develop business volume are a push towards larger vessels, up to 20,000-dwt in some cases, and the forging of new relationships with builders in Eastern

Europe. Industrial evolution in the north Netherlands has involved an active policy of reinvestment and improvement in the means of shipbuilding production.

The rise of new ship and section assem- bly halls over the windswept landscapes fringed by the Waddenzee and the IJs- selmeer is complemented by continuous design development, not least in the industry's core business of supplying dry cargo ships, multi-purpose vessels and container feeder carriers. The design effort couples 'added-value' with series production potential, and marries the vital requirement for construction- friendly forms with a deep understand- ing of the needs of the ship operator and industrial freight market.

More than ever, the region's strength in shipbuilding and the allied sectors derives not only from its professional skills but also from a propensity for col- laboration between like-minded, but wholly-independent firms.

Networking between assembly yards, section builders, cut steel suppliers, marine equipment makers and design engineering firms has conferred a high level of self-sufficiency, while special- ization in each case has fostered very high productivity levels. While subcon- tracting of bare hulls to cheaper-cost countries has long been a policy of cer- tain small-ship and craft builders in the

Netherlands, the principle of networking is being extended to include stronger relationships with selected yards in

Eastern Europe. Just as the new invest- ments in shipbuilding in the northern and middle regions of the Netherlands have largely complemented rather than displaced existing facilities on the inland waterway network, augmented relationships with yards in Eastern

Europe do not signify a diminution in the indigenous shipbuilding resources.

As the latest example of business verve, the recently expanded Volharding

Group has signed a new agreement with

Daewoo Mangalia Shipyard in Romania paving the way to a growing, annual supply of hulls for outfitting in the

Netherlands. The pact with the Korean majority-owned Romanian yard, plus investments in Volharding's two ship- yards, specialist outfitting facility and section building yard in Groningen province, should see the group's new- 61 • " • building output in 2000 rise to 18 ves- sels from nine last year. The typically

Dutch and German client profile has been broadened by contracts from

Mediterranean and Southeast Asian owners for multi-purpose vessels, while the group's market focus now extends from 1,800-dwt to 20,000-dwt, com- pared to the maximum 9,000-dwt hither- to.

One of the key constituents of the industry in the north is the sales, mar- keting and design engineering firm

Conoship International. Jointly owned by the member yards, which include the

Volharding Group, Conoship acts as an antenna for the individual builders in the international market, taking a proactive line in business development and the providing project support through to the contract stage, fulfilling a matchmaker role between customers and the ship- yards.

Conoship is emblematic of the north- ern industrial structure and business ethos as a whole, since it lives by gener-

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