Shipbuilding in Europe will only be appropriately classified by the given background of recent developments in the worldwide shipbuilding. The shipbuilding industry is determined by a global competition, which will be intensified by the current economic downturn. At the moment we can see two processes meeting and combining into a negative dynamic:

• Due to the launching of new yards worldwide, but especially in China, the overcapacity in the global shipbuilding market is expected by 2012 (esp. in the segment of box ships) independent of the current economic crisis.
• This deep crisis has led to a dramatic collapse in sea borne trade. That means from the end of 2008 many new orders for shipbuilding have been cancelled or delayed. Furthermore many finalized ships have not been put to service.

The dramatic consequences of this economic crisis cannot be considered by this report. The Institute Labour and Economy (IAW) of Bremen University/Germany launched a census study of European Shipbuilding Industry in 2004. In 2007 the IAW was asked to organize a panel study to find out the changes compared with 2004. The first findings of this panel study were presented within the European Maritime Week in April 2008 in Brussels to a forum of EU Commissioners and actors of the European Shipbuilding Industry (associations and unions, yards and other experts). Now the Otto Brenner Foundation (OBS) is publishing the results of the study.