Vietship 2008 - Marine Trading Floor

At the press briefing to introduce the fourth International Exhibition on Shipbuilding, Marine Technology and Transportation (Vietship 2008), a VIB reporter talked with Mr Nguyen Quoc Anh, Business Director of Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group and Deputy Head of the organising committee, to learn more about the exhibition and new development steps of the Vietnam shipbuilding industry in general.

 

Vietship exhibition is proud of being among the great international marine events. It is expected to be a good trading floor for facilitating projects of investment, cooperation and technology transfer projects as well as promoting trade for every enterprises operating in the marine sector.

 

Present at Vietship 2008 are consultants, designers, producers and suppliers of marine equipment, ship owners, representatives of shipping companies and register companies from nearly every country with power in the marine sector like Japan, Korea, China, Germany, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Poland, France, Italy, Sweden, Singapore and Taiwan. Also present at the exhibition are representatives from domestic companies operating in the shipbuilding industry and marine sector.

 

A new feature of Vietship 2008 is the participation of many dominant shipbuilding countries and marine equipment producers, including Japan, Germany, Norwegian and Poland, with a national stall system. Vietship 2008 is twice as big as the previous year. There are 400 companies attending, two thirds of which are international companies and groups coming from countries with developed shipbuilding industries, with 600 display stalls on an area of more than 20,000 square metres.

 

The shipbuilding industry of Vietnam in the past time has enjoyed rapid development with a direct approach to new technology application. Vietnam shipbuilding industry’s development strategy is to become a developed mechanics and manufacturing industry, not simply conduct processing tasks and by 2015, it is necessary that domestic input value reach 65 percent. In 2007, as voted by Pariplay magazine, Vietnam shipbuilding industry is among the top five shipbuilding countries in the world. Vietship 2008 will introduce many new technologies suitable for domestic investment in the shipbuilding industry. Flex technology of Wasila (Sweden), for instance, has low emission and is friendly to the environment. Countries with dominant shipbuilding industries also introduce systems to control equipment in the ships, application of advanced informatics – electronics technology, in line with new trends of development. Having access to such new technology, “Made in Vietnam” ships will meet international standards and their prices, therefore, will be fixed at international levels.

 

The shipbuilding industry has been getting large contracts to build ships for European and Asian ship owners. It will go through stronger growth in coming years, and this period will create opportunities for enterprises operating in supporting industries to participate in supply, contributing to export turnover growth.

Gone is the time when Vietnam takes a pride in being a country supplying cheap labour. Currently, the domestic shipbuilding industry has advantages in an abundant supply of skilled, dynamic and creative labour. Vietnam has a competitive advantage in terms of price, since domestically made ships have reasonable prices. Vietnam ships are being modernized and developed in terms of both total capacity and ship types. Besides, made-in-Vietnam ships focus on environmentally friendly criteria, the leading factor to settle ship owners’ fears of having their ships delayed at international ports due to emissions or technological factors.

 

Given the fact that global steel price is on an upward trend and a shortage of input materials for building ships still prevails, Vinashin has invested in metallurgy technology. Metallurgy is widely known as an important manufacturing industry and entitled to great support from the state. Vinashin has spent huge capital on the construction of a steel rolling factory and production of major equipment and Diesel devices, which shows the Vietnam shipbuilding industry’s activeness.

 

Another advantage is the industry’s “late comer” position. As such, it can utilize the most advanced technology without having to make huge investments.

 

At Vietship 2008, the organising committee will hold a trading floor (at hall No. 04, National conference centre) where enterprises can sign cooperation and technology transfer contracts. This year, the total value of these contracts is estimated to be several hundred million US dollars.

 

On the other hand, to develop the shipbuilding industry, a huge amount of money is needed. Sole dependence on loans from local banks will exert a burden on the credit system. International channels can still be relied on. As such, the organising committee plans to hold a seminar on finance for the shipbuilding industry and supporting industries with the participation of shipbuilders, ship owners, banks, register agents, etc. Vietship, therefore, will act as a bridge linking manufacturers and suppliers in marine sectors.