After a successful year for the shipbuilding and offshore supply industry as a whole, with rising business and the placement[ds_preview] of the Maritime Energy Turnaround, we are looking forward to Marintec China, the most important shipbuilding trade fair in Asia.
The German shipbuilding and offshore supply industry with its approximately 64,000 highly qualified employees is on a growth course in 2019.
The export-oriented German maritime suppliers, like the mechanical engineering industry as a whole, are part of a global value chain and support their components and systems throughout the entire life cycle of the ship or plant. Customs barriers, entry restrictions and complicated export controls are poison for a market that is just picking up again. The increasing restrictions on free trade with the USA, China, Russia, Turkey and soon also Great Britain are endangering jobs and prosperity, not only in Germany. With its »Thank you – Free Trade« campaign, the VDMA is trying to counter this trend and intends to inform the public about the benefits of open borders for the benefit of peace and freedom: Our economic power and thus our prosperity, not only in Germany, but in many countries of the world, would not be possible without free trade. China in particular is one of the best examples of this.
The German shipbuilding and offshore supply industry generates a good half of its sales in Germany and Europe, where low-emission shipping is the driver of developments. The other half of the turnover is generated abroad. In addition to established customers, there are also many new customers in Asia and the Middle East who can be convinced with tailor-made offers. Customer requirements are increasing with digital developments. New ideas are to be implemented through technical innovation and, at the same time, the availability during on-going operation is contractually guaranteed. This is both a challenge and an opportunity, because this is one of the competitive advantages of German maritime suppliers.
At the same time, the requirements in the established Asian markets will change in the medium term. In addition to Japan and South Korea, China is also continuing its efforts in special shipbuilding, currently in particular for ferries and cruise ships for the domestic market. The VDMA supports its member companies in gaining their own impression of the situation and the local decision-making processes and at the same time speaks out in favour of fair international cooperation and against protectionism.
The entire maritime industry in Germany must recognise its strengths in global competition and make joint use of them. The continuously and rapidly growing new digital possibilities lead to closer, previously unknown, cross-departmental cooperation. The entire logistics chain is networked. This requires standardization of the interfaces. Here the operators in shipping and the suppliers are pulling in the same direction, since it is also a matter of smooth and efficient operation throughout the entire service life of the ship or offshore facility.
Manufacturers of maritime components and systems, including control and automation technology, meet in the VDMA to jointly draft guidelines for the Type Package (MTP) module in a standard sheet. At the same time, OPC UA (Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture) must be defined as the standard for communication and data exchange in the field of industrial automation for the entire mechanical and plant-engineering sector.
Climate neutrality at sea is a crucial future topic for shipbuilding suppliers. Here, again, it is important to think and act in a networked manner. It is important to think beyond the pure combustion engine and consider the entire drive system. Hybridization and digitization offer new possibilities to increase environmental compatibility and at the same time profit from efficiency gains. The demands placed on system competence in the maritime mechanical engineering industry will thus continue to rise.
The climate neutrality is the goal of the VDMA’s »Maritime Energy Turnaround« initiative. The large engine industry wants to go down the road to climate neutrality together with politicians and therefore expressly supports the ambitious decision of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to at least halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. To achieve the 2 degree target, however, immense investments are necessary, which can only be justified by transparent and technology-neutral framework conditions. Many of the technologies for effective CO2 reduction and further emission reduction are already available today, and industry is constantly developing the technical possibilities further.
The decisive step towards climate neutrality is not always electrification. Applications for ferries and other short-haul operations are currently being successfully implemented and continuously further developed. This method is not feasible for overseas shipping, where other energy sources with high energy density are required. In purely physical terms, battery technology can only be a supplement to the traditionel marine engine.
On the way to future climate-neutral fuels, LNG will play a major role as an important transitional technology. The rapid expansion of the necessary gas infrastructure in ports worldwide is therefore even more urgently on the agenda. This infrastructure will also be available in the long term for synthetic gas from renewable electricity.
This is precisely where one of the most promising building blocks on the road to greenhouse gas neutrality comes in: Power-to-X. These processes make it possible to produce energy sources with a high energy density synthetically from regeneratively generated electricity and thus replace fossil energy sources with CO2-neutral, synthetic fuels in the long term. VDMA has taken up this future topic and set up a working group »Power-to-X for Applications«. The aim is to work together with industry, politics and science on sustainable and marketable solutions – for those industries in which direct electrification is no solution in the foreseeable future.
In the context of these manifold challenges of the shipbuilding and offshore supply industry, further networking and close cooperation beyond industry boundaries is a key to success. Here the VDMA will once again significantly strengthen its supporting function for companies, even beyond Marintec China 2019.
Hauke Schlegel
Managing Director
VDMA
German Marine Equipment and Systems Association
