WORLD SHIPBUILDING: DRIVING FORCES AND RELEVANT DEVELOPMENT VECTORS

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to find out under the influence of which external impulses and according to which vectors events in the field of shipbuilding are taking place in our time. Concentrating attention on them, the authors sought to provide shipbuilders-practitioners with guidelines useful for making weighted and sometimes fateful business decisions. The conducted research seems timely from the viewpoint of the formation by the owners and management of the development strategy of domestic shipyards. Especially those related to the “new wave.” In the overwhelming majority, it is represented, paradoxically, by small and mediumsized enterprises. In recent years, they have been striving to find their own place in the international market for engineering, construction, repair, conversion, operation, and recycling of products whose line makes the structure of the chosen industrial specialization. The fact that the prospects for this business, despite the known difficulties, are optimistic is evidenced by the dynamics of the absolute volume of cargo transportation by sea and the construction of new vessels it has caused. Methodology. The performed generalizations are based on the analytical processing and systematization of data obtained by the authors from available information sources. As a result, substantiation of the arguments confirming the formulated working hypothesis regarding fundamental changes in the global shipbuilding – a key type of marine economic activity – has been obtained. Among its many features – a high level of competition, in which more and more new rivals are drawn. The study outlines the factors, under the influence of which the identified metamorphoses occur. This creates the prerequisites for identifying causal relationships between the first and second ones. In particular: humanity’s facing with the realities of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, signs of which are easily detected in shipbuilding; awareness by governments, socially responsible business, the public of the fatal consequences of neglecting environmental safety, affecting the natural environment and people employed in the maritime industry or residing in its area; advances in the sectoral international division of labour, accompanied by the emergence of new shipbuilding centres; the rising cost of marketing and building ships and the desire of shipowners to get an effect on the scale of the facilities used. At the same time, obstacles that occur along the way are identified. Practical implications. In support of the conclusions, we analyse the experience of leading enterprises, which serve as an example for imitation and deserve further development. They are not limited solely to technical and technological innovations but find the use of new organizational forms of mobilization of accumulated potentials. Among them are shipbuilding clusters. Turning to their creation, the initiators seek to strengthen the competitive positions of participants in developed segments and actively form new promising markets. Value/originality. As a result of systematization of the key areas of the drift of world shipbuilding, an information platform has been created, based on which shipyard management is able to foresee the future of the business under its care.