GİSBİR Chairman Murat Kıran has shared his evaluations of the Turkish shipbuilding industry exclusively with MarineDeal News
As one of Turkey’s oldest non-governmental organizations, we are continuing to work hard for the industry by adhering to our philosophy of being realistic in identifying issues and voicing demands, which is the motto we have adopted in our approach to fields that are related to Turkish shipbuilding.
Since 2008, our shipyards have responded to a decrease in demand for new shipbuilding contracts –a worldwide issue related to the global financial crisis– by adopting a strategy of flexibility. Modern, technologically advanced and internationally certified Turkish shipyards have the capacity to build a wide range of vessels of different types. In this scope, we have continued working on new projects of special quality that we have defined as niche products such as powerships, offshore windfarm service vessels, heavy-lift vessels, fish carriers, vehicle and passenger transport vessels and new generation tugboats. I can say that, as part of the growing trends in shipbuilding globally, the importance of the environmentally friendly green ships that are economical in terms of fuel consumption has been increasing. Our shipbuilding industry continues to build more of these green ships and at the same time our yards continue to attach maximum importance to the protection of the environments which they operate. At the same time, our shipyards have also focused on maintenance-repair activities due to the lower demand for newbuilds and our industry has become a leader in this area.
The shipbuilding industry, which is one of the basic investment instruments of heavy-duty industry, is a strategic sector due to its close and inextricable ties to the defense industry where advanced technologies are applied. For me, the meaning and value of the phrase “He who conquers the seas, conquers the world” is very important. When we look at the common characteristics of the developed countries in the world, we see that their naval forces are highly advanced. At the point we have arrived today as Turkey, under the leadership of our president, our successful completion of the National Ship (MİLGEM) project and adding these vessels to the Turkish Naval Forces, our shipbuilding industry has destroyed many prejudices. We currently have nine shipyards that have either successfully completed or are completing the construction of and that are exporting some of the military vessels they have manufactures such as LPDs, coast guard search and rescue vessels, the new type patrol boats, the LCTs and LSTs, submarine rescue ships, the rescue and towing ships and logistic support vessels. It is clear that Turkish shipbuilding and related industries have gone a long way in recent years when one considers that there are only 15 countries in the world with the capacity to design, build and produce their own warships both in terms of combat and support class vessels. .
The shipbuilding industry has a special military, commercial and social importance for each country. The significance of the shipbuilding sector for Turkey can not be disputed. Over the next ten years, we anticipate that the supply/demand imbalance in the shipbuilding industry will evolve in the direction of supply/demand balance, owing to the high number of shipyards shutting down around the world because of the crisis. In this case, those shipyards which can stay efficient in terms of investment and production costs are going to stay on their feet and start making money. Depending on the establishment of political stability in our region, we expect to increase the use of existing idle capacity.
Looking at the strengths of Turkish shipbuilding in the global industry, we can say the following:
Our strengths;
– Central location (proximity to Europe).
– Qualified workforce and quality production.
– Ability to produce niche products.
– Defense Industry vessels which have proven our accomplishments to the entire world following their delivery to the Naval Forces.
– Emphasizing R&D and innovation in new trends such as Green Ship & Eco-Ship, LNG-fueled vessels.
– Technoparks that have provided support in innovativeness to the industry.
As for the vessels we build;
I can say that we are now specialized in various segments such as yachts, tugboats, chemical tankers, wooden boats, coasters, military ships, powerships, live fish carriers/ fishing vessels. We will also soon develop and prove our expertise in oil and gas by rapidly developing vessels that will serve in offshore drilling in parallel with the ongoing surveys in the Mediterranean and Black Sea.
We foresee that the availability of vessels may be limited in the future due to changing market and regulatory conditions, lessee preferences, current or future regulations and contracts. We see that the future trends in the shipbuilding industry include an increase in the construction of eco-vessels; a revitalization of the offshore structures that have remained idle in the past ten years owing to the increase in oil and gas prices; higher demand for new generation vessels which require less manpower, and higher demand for new generation design with advanced-technology and automation. The strategic importance of having a modern, high-quality fleet is increasing every day, because for shipowners operating under increasingly competitive conditions these new vessels can reduce operating costs, enhance safety and provide advantages in employment.
