Page 59: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (August 2014)

www.marinelink.com 59The German shipbuilding indus-try has a world market share of around one percent. This is certainly in another league compared to China, South Korea and Ja-pan, which divide the global shipbuild-ing pie of containerships, bulk carriers and tankers among themselves. But the German shipyards are on top in Europe. Here, around 90,000 people in the shipbuilding and supply industry are employed, and the German maritime cluster remains in strategic and symbolic importance. Aside from the Norwegians, which maintain a strong presence in the offshore segment, the Germans compa- nies are in a worldwide leading position.Recent news about the German ship-building has not been the best. But the takeover in early February 2014 of Sie-tas-Werft ? which is based in Hamburg and was traditionally rich, but now in-solvent ? by Pella Shipyard closes one door, but opens new perspectives for remaining employees. And the future of the P+S-Werft in Wolgast and Stralsund remains unclear. A year and a half after its insolvency, the last newbuild left the assembly hall of the Volkswerft in Stralsund, a RoRo ship for the Danish shipping company DFDS.For this shipyard and for the entire German shipbuilding industry, the pros- pects of building high-value, specialty ships today holds the most promise for future business.?The German shipbuilding can score points with all what is complex, where customers have high requirements and where they are willing to pay a higher price because they depend on that every-thing works well,? said Reinhard Lüken, General Managing Director of Verband für Schiffbau und Meerestechnik e.V. (VSM).The Global Shipbuilding Perks UpGerman shipyards are essentially hold-ing steady, with the turnover of all Ger- man shipyards at the end of the third quarter 2013 being $4.6B, which is slightly under the $5.3 billion recorded at the end of Q3 2012. Despite this drop off, VSM is taking a positive view, as it sees slightly increasing demand world-wide, as well as a growing population and the increasing claims of afß uence. In addition, German companies as a whole Previous page, clockwise starting at the top:  Meyer Shipyard and it?s daughter company Neptun Shipyard , Rostock, have had again a successful year. In 2013 two cruise ships, one LNG-gas tanker out of Papenburg and 10 river cruise ships out of Rostock ensured employment. Blohm+Voss latest super yacht Graceful The ?Aeolus?, the  rst in Germany designed and build Jack-up vessel for the offshore industry, which has been built at Sietas Yard for well-known Dutch hydraulic engineering company Van Oord, left the Sietas Yard in Febru- ary 2014.By Peter Pospiech, Dipl.-Ing. MR #8 (58-63).indd 59MR #8 (58-63).indd 598/8/2014 4:14:50 PM8/8/2014 4:14:50 PM