Page 27: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (February 2015)

Credit: Meyer Werft

State-of-the-art brdige on Quantum of the Seas.

edly tightened access to credit to all but China’s

A Slow Boat to Market Growth biggest shipyards even as other shipyards have

The government may want to build a vaca- tion market, and the cruise industry may be been closing, forcing the government to launch salivating at the huge untapped potential of the a program to reform the sector –creating a so-

Chinese market, but growth will be stymied by called “white list” of shipyards eligible for as- capacity – there simply aren’t enough ships to sistance from the state. Cruise liners done right, meet demand. And even if more liners could be are both pro? table, and in demand. There’s that

Double Happiness again. redeployed from other more sedate global sec-

However, “It will take many years, in my tors, it wouldn’t be enough. And it also might view, before a cruise client will trust a Chinese not be pleasing to an increasingly sophisticat- ed and status-conscious client base: they don’t shipyard to build the entire ship,” says Chart want warmed over, outdated ships, which until Management’s Blamey.

A situation that again, signals opportunity to recently are often what they got. The days of limping old vessels to a once backwater market Europe’s cruise ship builders, which besides are over. The situation begs for new builds, but having honed the requisite skills needed to build

China’s shipyards aren’t up to the task. Cruise quality liners, also have the production side down to a science. ships are very complex and the design, work- “Excluding the AIDA project [now underway] manship and variety of activities and number of state rooms aboard a typical cruise ship is far at Mitsubishi, we are down to three companies more intricate than the types of vessels being with four yards – STX France, [Germany’s]

Meyer Werft, and then [Italy’s] Fincantieri. They turned out today at most Chinese shipyards. have really gone through a long period of learn-

Even Japan, which has arguably more sophis- ticated shipbuilding skills, has had a less than ing what the criteria are needed on the cruise ship end and the logistics involved, to keep those glowing experience in the cruise market, drop- yards viable. It’s a real testament to the experi- ping in and out over the years.

ence gained in making the yard ef? cient in pro-

And yet cruise liners could be a boon to Chi- ductivity,” says Bud Darr, CLIA’s senior vice na’s shipyards. While not lacking in orders, they are lacking in pro? tability and overrun with president of technical and regulatory affairs.

Ironically, in most sectors of shipbuilding, capacity, so much so that banks have report-

Asian competitors in China, Korea and Japan

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