Hamburg Maritime Economy
Climate neutrality in shipbuilding fills the order books
As of: 3:58 p.m. | Reading time: 3 minutes
A ship in a shipyard in Stralsund – more and more shipowners are converting their freighters
Quelle: picture alliance/dpa
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The suppliers of shipbuilding benefit from climate investments by shipowners – but here too there is a shortage of skilled workers. The Union in the Bundestag wants to strengthen the maritime economy in Germany and sees an urgent need for action.
The beginning climate-neutral conversion of the ship fleets gives the suppliers of the shipbuilders an appreciably better order situation. “The shipowners’ investments are very much aimed at putting climate-neutral shipping into practice,” said the chairman of the corresponding working group (AG) in the mechanical engineering association VDMA, Martin Johannsmann, on Monday in Hamburg. “Challenging projects in the German maritime supply industry are being worked on in new construction, but especially in the modernization and retrofitting of the moving fleet.”
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The bottom line is that incoming orders increased by almost eight percent in 2022, and orders have continued to increase in the current year, the association reported. This also benefits employment. Last year, the shipbuilding sub-sector saw employment increase by 1.6 percent to 64,000 employees. And the companies could actually hire even more skilled workers, but they can’t find them.
“The bottleneck is now actually the lack of skilled workers to be able to fulfill the orders and deliver to the customers on time,” said Johannsmann. “That’s why we’re constantly on the lookout for talent and are hiring significantly more in our companies.”
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The industry, which supplies important components for ships from the screw to the navigation system and from ship’s diesel to the electronic control system, sees itself as the global market leader and lives 80 percent from global exports. About half of the turnover of currently 10.7 (2021: 10.3) billion euros is attributable to companies in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, other important suppliers are located in North Rhine-Westphalia and the northern German states.
Meanwhile, the Union faction in the Bundestag is demanding a campaign of measures for the maritime economy in Germany from the traffic light coalition. Massive investments are needed, especially in the port of Hamburg, in order to be able to keep the maritime added value and the know-how in Germany in the future, said the rapporteur for the parliamentary group for port economy, the Hamburg MP Christoph Ploß (CDU).
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A proposal by the Union, which is to be introduced in the Bundestag on Friday, provides, among other things, for a strengthening of the role of the federal government’s coordinator for maritime industry and tourism. Instead of in the Federal Ministry of Economics, the coordinator post should be located in the Federal Chancellery and concentrated on the maritime economy.
In addition, the rapid implementation of the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan, the acceleration of port infrastructure projects and a nationwide 5G network are required. Projects of the domestic maritime economy are to be secured by federal guarantees and export credit guarantees and new support structures for a “defossilization of shipping” are to be created.
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In the application, the Union is also in favor of protecting the critical port infrastructure from the influence of third countries and securing the critical energy infrastructure at sea. Naval shipbuilding and armaments exports are also to be strengthened.
In Hamburg, investments in the port infrastructure and the hinterland connections must be increased, demanded Ploß. In addition to expanding the port into a hub for the energy transition, for renewable energies and green hydrogen, bank and quay facilities would have to be renovated – which would benefit the whole country. “The port of Hamburg and the connected waterways ensure prosperity, employment and security of supply throughout Germany,” he said.
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In the middle of the month, the National Maritime Conference (NMK) in Bremen, under the patronage of the Federal Chancellor, will deal with support for the maritime economy. In addition to Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens), Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) and the Federal Government’s maritime coordinator, Dieter Janecek (Greens), want to discuss the future of the maritime economy with around 800 industry representatives.