Association for shipbuilding and marine technology
The Association for Shipbuilding and Marine Technology ( VSM ) is an association of companies and other parties involved in the German maritime industry. Members include sea and inland shipyards and their suppliers for shipbuilding and marine technology , such as machine and equipment manufacturers , classification societies , research institutes and engineering offices . The VSM represents political and economic interests of its around 140 (as of 2015) members vis-à-vis the national and international public and vis-à-vis political institutions. This includes technical advice and support for members as well as the promotion of technical and economic developments in shipbuilding and marine technology at home and abroad.
history
At a conference on December 29, 1884 in Streit's Hotel in Hamburg, representatives such as Henry Koch and Hermann Blohm from eight German shipyards met. There they founded the “Verein deutscher Schiffswerften e. V. “and went down in German shipbuilding history. 12 companies and companies signed a petition concerning the construction of ships and ship steam engines in domestic shipyards with reference to the submission of behulf's subsidies from overseas steamship lines, which the Reichstag received. Its seat became Berlin. When it was founded, German shipyards had a world market share of around 5 percent. German shipowners ordered sophisticated ships such as express steamers from English , Scottish and Irish shipyards. Between 1880 and 1890 these had a world market share of 60 to 70 percent; the earlier industrialization in England, new methods of smelting (cheaper production; Bessemer pear 1855) and other factors resulted in a knowledge advantage. Like all of Germany, German shipowners and shipyards were in an industrial boom (see also Industrial Revolution in Germany ).
From his accession to power (June 1888; in March 1890 he dismissed Bismarck), Kaiser Wilhelm II strengthened the maritime sector in a special way. He promoted the technical universities and the shipbuilding research institutes; he drove the expansion of the merchant fleet and especially the expansion of the Imperial Navy . The German shipping companies enlarged their fleets; instead of wood or iron, steel was used in new buildings. Steam engines had largely replaced the propulsion of ships with sails (see steamship ). The advantages of electricity were recognized, and incandescent lamps were increasingly being used on ships instead of kerosene lamps. On February 27, 1892, Rudolf Diesel applied for a patent for the oil motor, which later superseded other marine propulsion systems (see marine diesel engine ). In 1897 Charles Algernon Parsons demonstrated his newly developed steam turbine to the admirals in England with the Turbinia (a 30.48 m long steel ship) (details here ).
Against the background that the subsidies for mail steamers were only granted to ships built in Germany, German shipyards received orders for more sophisticated ships from German shipping companies. North German Lloyd won the Blue Ribbon for Germany for the first time with Kaiser Wilhelm der Große in 1897. This second phase after the founding of the association was marked by strong upswing and downswing. In addition to the three imperial shipyards in Danzig , Kiel and Wilhelmshaven , other large shipyards were involved in building the fleet of the Imperial Navy . During the First World War , other shipyards were also employed in the construction of warships and especially submarines; a war committee of the German shipyards was formed for this purpose.
After the end of the First World War with the delivery of the war fleet and almost all merchant ships with more than 1,600 GRT and half of the ships from 1,000 to 1,600 GRT, the German merchant fleet virtually ceased to exist. The war committee of the German shipyards was dissolved. In 1921 the economic committee was founded, which bundles the interests of the shipyard association and the seagoing shipbuilding service association. After a short break and despite inflation , there was a lot of work for the reconstruction and by 1929 mainly German shipyards had built a modern German merchant fleet. Examples of top performance are the passenger ships Europa and Bremen of the association shipyards for Norddeutscher Lloyd , both of which received the Blue Ribbon .
In October 1929 a stock market crash or a bear market marked the beginning of the so-called world economic crisis . Various factors (e.g. burgeoning protectionism , lack of foreign exchange) led to a decline in world trade . Fewer ships were needed, the freight rates (= transport prices ). sank and ships were laid up . These developments also slowed down the German development phase and the subsequent deteriorating economic situation led to shipyard closings and mergers. The number of employees in the shipbuilding industry fell to 10 to 15 percent.
The development since 1933
After the Nazi regime came to power , there were planned economy tendencies. The shipyards were initially occupied with the construction of ships as part of job creation measures (for example the construction of the KDF ships ). In 1935 the "Shipbuilding Section" was established in Hamburg; the armament of the Wehrmacht began.
Orders for the navy , which in addition to the naval shipyards also included non-governmental shipyards, were using up the shipyards to the full, which led to severe delays in the warship building program. Long before the outbreak of war in 1939, the shipyards were fully occupied and there was a battle for engineers, skilled workers and building materials.
The battleship Bismarck was built by Blohm & Voss and its sister ship, the Tirpitz , by the Kriegsmarine shipyard in Wilhelmshaven . But also submarines , destroyers , cruisers , battle cruisers and smaller types of warship and auxiliary warships were built. The construction of aircraft carriers also began. In 1936 , Deutsche Werke Kiel put the first German aircraft carrier on Kiel, which was launched on December 8, 1938. The expansion of the ship was interrupted in 1940, continued in 1942 and finally stopped in February 1943.
With the beginning of the Second World War , the submarine building was particularly promoted, and later the section building of the submarines. Many shipyards were involved and many companies inland were also involved in submarine construction.
In order to compensate for the war losses on cargo ships , the Hansa building program was launched, in which many foreign shipyards were also involved.
Development after 1945
In August 1945 a reorganization takes place and the "Association of German Shipyards" was founded. After initially severe restrictions for German shipyards, the German merchant fleet will then be rebuilt. The quality and prices lead to increased orders from abroad and thus to increasing export quotas. In 1956, German shipbuilding reached a share of around 17 percent in global shipbuilding. At this stage of the growth in size of ships, the construction of tankers and bulk carriers was challenging because it was breaking new ground. This was done in cooperation with institutes of the participating universities, shipbuilding testing institutes, the classifications and the supplier industry.
The Tina Onassis from 1956 with around 45,000 tdw was the world's largest tanker. The German and Japanese large shipyards invested in the expansion of their shipyards in order to enable the tankers to grow in size up to 500,000 tdw. The price increases of the first oil crisis in 1972/73 dampened demand; the second oil crisis in 1979 led to a temporary standstill in global large tank construction. 50 percent of the transport space by sea was taken up by oil (mainly crude oil) in the early 1970s. The closure of the Suez Canal - it lasted from June 1967 to June 1975 - increased the need for oil tankers.
Due to the high oil prices, the North Sea oil became competitive and the distances of the tankers are becoming shorter, in some cases pipelines have also been laid here. The challenges of the container revolution that began internationally in 1966/67 were accepted by German shipyards. The container ships that have been in domestic American traffic since 1956 were converted tankers or freighters. The Bell Vanguard , the first pure container ship to be built in Europe, was built at the JJ Sietas shipyard. The following development was also shaped by German shipyards. German shipyards developed, designed and built container ships with spaces for 750, 1,500 and 3,000 TEU for German and English shipowners ("three generations in five years").
Vertical integration
A process of division of labor takes place at German shipyards. This leads to high productivity and low vertical integration. The drive and auxiliary machines as well as hatch covers, which in the past were often manufactured in-house or under license in the shipyard's own workshops, now come from the supply industry. The shipyards concentrated on the design, construction and steel work; Pipelines are built in the workshops and the ship is built on the Helgen or in the building dock. The section production increased the throughput of the helmets, but also made it easier to relocate the steel work. These developments reduced the vertical range of manufacture in Germany to 20 to 40 percent today, depending on the type of ship and shipyard structure.
German shipyards with 20,000 employees annually deliver ships with a total of around 1 to 1.5 million GRT (2009 = 1.4 million GRT). In comparison, there were around 240,000 GRT in 1900, which were delivered by over 50,000 employees. From 1974 shipbuilding supplier companies involved in shipbuilding technology could become members of the Association of the German Shipbuilding Industry.
An expansion takes place in 1987 through the opening towards marine technology, which also led to the name change to the current name Association for Shipbuilding and Marine Technology (abbreviated VSM ). German reunification increased the number of shipyards and the VSM took on new members. The restructuring and privatization of these operations led to shipyards with short distances, known as compact shipyards. However, the capacity restriction imposed by the EU only allowed for reduced operations. After the collapse of Bremer Vulkan AG in 1996/97, there was a second privatization by Meyer-Werft by Norwegian and Danish groups.
The reduced price for general cargo due to container shipping has promoted and intensified globalization. Charter rates were high until mid-2008; the shipowners ordered numerous new larger ships. A financial crisis triggered an economic crisis in 2008/9 in which world trade fell significantly. In 2009 hardly any new container ships were ordered anywhere in the world, and existing orders were canceled. Since then, despite slow travel, more than 10 percent of the container ships have been stranded in shipping areas. In the order book of the German shipyards, special ships such as ferry, cruise, research offshore ships and yachts, which are also referred to as "non-cargo-carrying" ships, predominated.
The association is a co-founder of the German Maritime Center .
photos
Seat in the Slomanhaus
Construction of a passenger ferry at the founding member Flensburger Schiffbaugesellschaft
Web links
- Association website
- 125 years 125 VSM (pdf, 32 pages)
literature
- E. Strohbusch: shipbuilding, design, construction, manufacturing. In: 75 Years of Shipbuilding Society. Hamburg 1974, DNB 780625900 .
- Several authors: 100 years of shipping, shipbuilding, ports. Hansa Verlag, Hamburg 1964, DNB 577407732 .
- Several authors: 125 years of the Association for Shipbuilding and Marine Technology, Current Affairs and Technology 1884–2009. Hansa Verlag, Hamburg 2009, OCLC 917665271 .
Footnotes
- ↑ Local and mixed notes. In: Lübeckische Blätter . Volume 27, No. 3, edition of January 11, 1885, p. 20.