From the magazine – Judging by the photograph circulated by Damen Shipyards Group of the Waterborne Leadership Event held in Brussels on 29 September, representatives of the European shipbuilding industry are pleased with the European Commission’s political support for the maritime sector. Nineteen executives from leading European maritime companies signed the roadmaps at the event. These roadmaps stem from the European Industrial Maritime Strategy adopted earlier this year. They offer hope for the future, but the question remains whether the measures will prove too little, too late.
In every issue of SWZ|Maritime, SWZ|Maritime’s editor Antoon Oosting writes an opinion piece under the heading “Markets” about the maritime industry or a particular sector within it. In October 2026, he discusses the roadmaps that are part of the European Industrial Maritime Strategy. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the publisher (the SWZ Foundation), the KNVTS, or other editors.
Anyone who has followed developments in recent years will know that, apart from naval and cruise ships and a few highly specialised vessels, hardly anything is built at European shipyards any more. Even European shipbuilders are giving up on the construction of highly complex vessels. The Seaway, an advanced 178-metre trailing suction hopper dredger with a hopper capacity of 31,000 m3, delivered to Boskalis in July this year, will most likely be the last large dredger built in the Netherlands.
Also read: Damen undersigns European maritime innovation agenda 2050
No more large dredgers
In an interview with Dutch newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad, outgoing IHC CEO Derk te Bokkel said the dredging specialist wants to sell its large shipbuilding hall in Krimpen aan den IJssel. Under pressure from its customers, IHC will have larger dredgers built at Asian shipyards from now on, probably in Vietnam. In the Netherlands, IHC will focus on building smaller dredging equipment. Te Bokkel, who will soon step down, also said he hoped IHC would secure more maintenance contracts for the Royal Netherlands Navy and win subcontracting work on naval shipbuilding projects.
IHC has, in fact, just secured a contract as a subcontractor to France’s Naval Group to build the crew accommodation modules for the four new Orka-class submarines that the French company is building for the Royal Netherlands Navy. Te Bokkel said IHC is currently negotiating with several parties over the sale of its shipbuilding hall in Krimpen. He hinted that a superyacht builder is the most likely buyer. However, in this author’s humble opinion, the facility would also be an excellent location for building naval vessels. After all, building frigates for the Royal Netherlands Navy at Damen’s yard in Galati, Romania, can hardly be considered safe any more. The Russians are far too close.
More hulls from abroad
Regardless of where naval vessels should be built in the future, the end of large commercial shipbuilding in the Netherlands is a clear sign of a deeply troubling trend. Only a few yards still build civilian vessels of a reasonable size: shipyards along the Winschoterdiep and Eemskanaal waterways in the north of the Netherlands, Thecla Bodewes (Royal T Shipyards), and specialists Neptune and Holland Shipyards. Even these yards do not build the really large vessels. Dutch shipyards are also increasingly outsourcing the basic hull construction of shortsea vessels to foreign yards.
Building an entire ship at a Dutch yard has simply become too expensive and finding enough qualified personnel is also becoming increasingly difficult. This may not sit well with trade unions, who seem to be taking a blinkered view, but foreign workers are becoming more common at shipyards in the north of the country too. There are simply no longer enough Dutch workers available to build ships in the Netherlands.
Also read: Continued delays could cost Dutch Navy and Damen dearly
A European problem
This is by no means a problem unique to the Netherlands. Cable-laying vessels and other complex offshore ships built by Norway’s Vard are assembled as bare hulls at the company’s Romanian yards. They are then fitted with the most complex and expensive equipment in Norway. These are among the few types of vessels that Europe can still build competitively. Meanwhile, Finnish shipbuilder Meyer Turku relies on many workers from the Baltic states and Poland to build the huge cruise ships ordered by Royal Caribbean.
The other major European cruise shipbuilders, Chantiers de l’Atlantique and Italy’s Fincantieri Group, also frequently use subcontractors who recruit much of their workforce from Eastern Europe. When they cannot find enough workers there, they turn to countries such as Bangladesh, as Fincantieri does. Fincantieri also operates shipyards in Vietnam, and almost half of its own workforce consists of non-Italians. We therefore need to do much more to train people for the industry. Otherwise, even the construction of naval vessels, which are crucial to defending our freedom and other cherished values, could be at risk.
Asian shipbuilders are quick learners
Europe’s problem is that Asian shipbuilders, first in Japan and South Korea, followed by China, Vietnam and India, are learning exceptionally quickly. Several of these countries have already overtaken Europe in shipbuilding expertise. Damen has all its dredgers built at its yards in Vietnam, Van Oord uses yards in Singapore, and the large crane vessels for Jan De Nul, DEME and Van Oord are built in China. Following the debacle surrounding the construction of the Oleg Strashnov at IHC’s yard using faulty designs from GustoMSC, IHC has not built another crane vessel. Van Oord also moved its construction work to Asia after encountering problems in Spain. The price difference was too great, while the quality gap that was once routinely cited has continued to narrow.
China has gained a particular advantage through strategic acquisitions in Europe. In 2012, Deltamarin, a ship design company based in Turku, Finland, came under the ownership of AIVC, now part of China Merchants Group. Since then, almost all ro-pax ferries, ro-ro cargo carriers, LNG carriers and car carriers – vessel types in which Swedish and Norwegian shipowners are particularly active – have been built at Chinese yards. Major European ferry operators such as DFDS, Stena Line and Grimaldi now also have all their vessels built in China. When a shipowner commissions Deltamarin to design a vessel, it is hardly surprising if the company points them towards a Chinese shipyard for construction and a Chinese bank for financing.
Indian shipbuilders have also found their way to European ship design companies. At the end of last month, it was announced that India’s state-owned Cochin Shipyard had acquired a 23 per cent stake in Groningen-based ship design company Conoship International Holding. Conoship is expected to help Cochin Shipyard build vessels in India. With roads and railways congested, India has a strong need for short-sea vessels, a type of ship that Conoship knows how to design particularly well. However, giving an Indian shipyard access to Conoship’s extensive expertise in this field and other vessel types also creates another major competitor for European shipbuilders, including the yards in the northern Netherlands.
Also read: EU is raising taxes, whilst Chinese industry reaps the real profits
Security and strategic autonomy
What can Europe do in response? In its EU Industrial Maritime Strategy, launched on 4 March, the European Commission stresses the need for a strong maritime industrial base. It describes this as essential to Europe’s security and strategic autonomy, long-term competitiveness and the objectives of the twin transition.
A key part of the strategy is the establishment of the EU Industrial Maritime Value Chains Alliance (EMA). The alliance is intended to bring together public and private stakeholders from across the maritime ecosystem. On 2 September, the Commission officially launched the alliance and invited all relevant parties to join. These include maritime manufacturers, shipowners and other maritime users, EU member states and regions, investors, research institutions such as MARIN and TNO, and social partners. The initiative aims to strengthen the EU’s maritime industrial and technological sovereignty, thereby contributing to economic security, strategic autonomy, supply chains, defence readiness and the transition to a clean, digital economy.
Roadmaps for research
At the Waterborne Leadership Event, nineteen representatives of major maritime companies, including Damen vice-president Martin Bloem, Fincantieri and IHC, signed roadmaps based on the EU Industrial Maritime Strategy. They presented the roadmaps to Apostolos Tzitzikostas, European Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism. They provide a framework for maritime research, development and innovation (RD&I), as well as for scaling up technologies and bringing them to market.
The Waterborne Technology Platform is Europe’s collaborative platform for RD&I in waterborne transport. The roadmaps set targets for 2035, 2040 and 2050, covering areas including technologies to make shipping more sustainable, digitalisation, circularity and autonomous navigation. Now the hope is that these plans will translate into concrete action to strengthen Europe’s maritime industry and strategic autonomy.
Cartoon by Hans de Wilde/SWZ|Maritime.
Also read: EU maritime industrial strategy will have to prove its worth
