The Asian Giants against EU Shipbuilding and the Covid-19 Factor: How Could the European Shipping Industry Survive?

Abstract

The dominance of Europe in the shipbuilding market has been declining at a slow yet steady pace in the last forty years while the Asian shipbuilding sector grew massively and emerged as the leading market in the global shipbuilding industry. The Asian competition stemming from China, Japan, and Korea (the Asian Giants) together with the Covid-19 pandemic have been identified as urgent threats to European Union (EU) shipbuilding by numerous scholars and industry actors. The scope of this paper is to identify specific sets of proposals for the EU shipbuilding to be able to battle the challenges from the Asian shipbuilding market as well as the difficulties rising from the Covid-19 pandemic. Firstly, a comparative analysis between the competitors, the three Asian Giants and the EU will be presented to highlight wrongdoings and gather valuable outtakes of each industry. Secondly, we will be looking at how Covid-19 is disrupting the maritime and shipbuilding industries of the EU. Evidence suggests that the nature of European shipyards’ work and expertise places them in a highly vulnerable position amidst Covid-19, as well as, that the Asian Giants are proven to be more resilient against the EU and Europe’s Covid-19-affected advantage in quality, expertise, and niche-equipment production.