Dear readers,
The phrase »Go West« has already lost its allurement some time ago. While Europe struggles with her currency[ds_preview] crisis and budget deficits and while the United States surely are not the world’s economical dominator anymore, many eyes glance eastward. During the financial crisis and the recent recession it has become clear that a shift in power is taking place. Especially China remained unimpressed by the economic distortions and has a luxury problem of restricting its enormous economic growth. As seen with many industries before, like textiles, telecommunication or computers, shipbuilding capacities too have been moved step by step from Europe (with almost nothing remaining in the US) to Asia – at first to Japan, then to South Korea and now to China. This development was bemoaned long enough, especially in Germany. There is no alternative, however, to accepting the fact that commercial shipbuilding won’t take place on the »Old Continent« any longer. With innovation, high productivity and a common European maritime strategy, the construction of specialized ships (e.g. offshore vessels, mega yachts, cruise ships or ferries) may remain here.
While this is a tough environment for the yards, German suppliers and ship operators have widely benefited from the huge shipbuilding capacities emerging in Far East. They have grown with their Chinese partners and – by providing their knowledge – have made them ever stronger. For the supplying industry the task at hand is to cope with evolving competitors by remaining the leader in innovation. And ship operators currently do not only think about building ships in China, but also about financing them in complete packages – possibly with a Chinese shipping line as a charterer, too.
Bearing this development in mind, HANSA has put China at the core of this issue. Just in time for Marintec 2011, which starts on 29 November, we publish the first HANSA China Special in English and Chinese. You will find the 48-page issue at the end of the magazine, with an own, reversed cover page. We are very pleased to have the China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry (CANSI) as a partner for this special edition as well as the VDMA German Engineering Federation with its division Marine and Offshore Equipment Industry. We hope that the comprehensive interviews with CANSI President Mr. Guangqin Zhang and VDMA Chairman Dr. Alexander Nürnberg, a survey on China’s shipbuilding industry, recent order statistics and various green shipping topics will make this issue a worthwhile read.
The 15th HANSA-Forum Schiffsfinanzierung (ship financing), which takes place on 17 November in Hamburg, is another highlight this month. While German ship financing banks and KG funds are still operating in crisis mode, alternative financing sources have become an important requirement in order to conduct new business. In addition to capital e.g. from private equity funds, here again China may play a larger role in the future. Thus HANSA is very glad to welcome Ms. Li Li at the event, the General Manager of Transportation Credit Department at
EXIM Bank. Her lecture will illustrate the status and means of Chinese ship financing which may be of interest especially to German shipowners.
Because of the international scope of this issue and due to our cooperation with CANSI, which will distribute the China Special to its members, most of the articles are in English or are at least accompanied by English abstracts. Taking our international readership into account, e.g. non-German seafarers on German-managed ships, we are going to proceed with comparable abstracts in the future. We hope you enjoy the reading and are grateful for any feedback.
Nikos Späth
