“2008 was generally still a very good year with impressive 8.4 percent growth,” said Dr Alexander Nürnberg, Chairman of the German Engineering Federation (VDMA) – Marine and Offshore Equipment Industries at the association’s press conference in Hamburg on July 7.
“In [the northern] autumn, however, gloom spread to our sector, which has been so used to success in the last five years. We had expected a consolidation of the shipbuilding markets, which had been very overheated up to mid-2008. But no one could foresee the actual massive impact of declines in orders, project cancellations and business failures of major customers.