The Challenge
 
The European shipbuilding industry is a dynamic and competitive sector, both in the EU and worldwide. Besides offering a wide range of technologies, it employs a significant number of workers, it generates income in foreign currency and it affects other areas such as transport, security, research and the environment.
 
The Shipbuilding sector and all its ancillary industries have been growing globally in the past few years, offering an interesting market opportunity. However, the figures show that some Asian countries, namely, China, Japan and South Korea have a significant market share, compared with European countries. In fact, the competition is fierce, so the challenge for the European shipbuilding industry is to be able to organise itself irrespective of national boundaries, complementing its knowledge, its industrial capabilities and its very high level of technology to compete in high tech and high added value products.