Global Ship Building

Essay by shawnmacUniversity, Bachelor'sC+, November 2011

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RUNNING HEAD: GLOBAL SHIP BUILDING 1

Global

Ship Building Market

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Executive Summary

Global shipbuilding is an important economic activity that continually changes with the current state of the global economy. When there is a high demand for a particular type of cargo, the demand will rise for that particular type of ship. Owners and operators will place orders at shipyards specializing in that type of ship and production of new vessels will increase. The global shipping market moves in a series of boom and bust cycles influenced by the world economy and the availability of ships. There are many different types of ships each with their own specifications. Tanker and dry bulk cargo ships make up the majority of global fleet but there is also a large amount of container ships, roll on/roll off carriers, chemical tankers, cruise ships and other specialty types. As developing nations require more manufactured goods and the volume of containerized goods continues to increase, the demand for certain types of ships will continue to change in an attempt to meet demand.

Shipping itself has a demand type nature that provides a fair representation of the global economy and trade. There is a strong relationship between the performance of shipbuilding and the global economy. New build production tends to rise with the growth of the global economy and trade. Similarly shipbuilding will suffer when global trade slows. This allows shipbuilding to be a fair indicator of the global economic condition.

Asian countries such as China, Japan and Korea have attained a monopoly on the construction of larger merchant vessels such as oil tankers, bulk carriers, container ships and roll on/ roll off vessels. The resulting monopoly has the Asian shipyard capacity fully utilized for 2009. Europe has maintained its portion of the high tech merchant...