SHIPBUILDERS, designers and owners are being driven to develop smarter ships to cope with the dramatic increases in fuel prices and the rising time of environmental regulations.
Identifying and seizing chances for improvement in a difficult business environment was the theme at this year's annual meeting of classification society Germanischer Lloyd's (GL) Hellenic Technical Committee held in Athens.
Matthias Ritters, GL's region manager Europe, Middle East, Africa noted that the shipping industry was still going through a difficult period because of the persistent weakness of the world economy and the oversupply, reported BYM Marine & Maritime News of Gibraltar.
"Trade growth in the container markets was healthy, but unevenly distributed with growth in the mainline routes from Asia to Europe and to the US being outpaced by other trade routes. A record number of 10,000+ TEU vessels had been delivered to these routes last year, resulting in rates dropping significantly," he added.
In shipbuilding, Mr Titters said that contracting at South Korean yards had been relatively strong in 2011, but there was significant capacity still idle at both South Korean and Chinese yards.
Chinese yards had increased their capacity over the past years and were taking steps to further diversify their product portfolio, such as by building large container vessels, LNG tankers and offshore vessels. Looking ahead, he said, the impact of new energy efficient ship designs would be felt, while over capacity would put further downwards pressure on newbuilding prices.
SHIPBUILDING
19 March 2012 - 13:33
Germanischer Lloyd sees more money in high oil prices and tough eco rules
SHIPBUILDERS, designers and owners are being driven to develop smarter ships to cope with the dramatic increases in fuel prices and the rising time of environmental regulations.
SHIPBUILDING
19 March 2012 - 13:33
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