“The production cycle specific to the ship building industry is the reason why we have an 80 percent increase in net sales in H1 this year, compared to the first half of 2008,” Rusen said.
However, mid-year financial data brings no positive change in the grim forecasts which are now affecting all players on this market. Since the beginning of this year, most ship builders have been complaining about an acute lack of new orders, which, unless the situation changes by 2010, will lead the industry into collapse.
At present, shipyards are still collecting money from ship owners that signed contracts in previous years, and have set 2009 as the year for the delivery of ships. This year, according to contracts already signed, the Constanta Shipyard has delivered three ships for clients in France and Germany, worth some $130 mln (€91 mln), and is supposed to deliver two more in the coming six months. Moreover, the revenues of the shipyard amounted to RON 300 mln (€71 mln) in H1, up by an annual 25 percent.
The value of the Romanian ship construction and repair sector amounted to some €800 mln last year. Constanta Shipyard’s main competitors are Daewoo Mangalia Heavy Industries, the Korean STX Europe group, and Damen Galati.
