Norwegian shipyards are losing market share to Asia

Phot:.Photo: Morten Holm / SCANPIX .

In just over two years, the Norwegian shipyards have lost two-thirds of the market for the production of ships for Norwegian foreign shipowners. The winners are now South Korea and China.

At the beginning of 2014, 30 percent of ship orders that were built from the Norwegian foreign fleet were placed with Norwegian shipyards. As of April 1st, the proportion has dropped to 9 percent, wrote the Klassekampen. South Korea and China have market shares of 35 percent each, up from respectively 20 and 25 percent since January 2014.

Norwegian shipyards specialize in supplying vessels to the oil industry and there has been a marked decline in this industry. In the first quarter of production, shipbuilding and transport equipment was 17 percent lower than the year before, according to figures from Statistics Norway. Meanwhile, there was an increase from the first to second quarter, and a shift to other market segments, which can be a sign of improvement. Among other things Kleven was awarded a contract worth several billion for construction of two ships for Hurtigruten.

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today