GELU STAN, THE HEAD OF ANCONAV: "The Romanian naval industry will only return to normal in 2014"

The past few years have represented a challenge for the Romanian naval industry: some of the shipyards managed to turn out a considerable profit, whereas others posted major losses. More specifically, according to the latest financial results published by the Ministry of Finance, the most profitable shipyard in Romania is STX OSV Brăila, which logged a profit of approximately 50 million lei at the end of 2011, and at the opposite end of the spectrum, with a loss of 72 million lei, is the shipyard of Mangalia.

Damen Galaţi and STX OSV Tulcea have also ended the year 2011 profitable, which has reached about 14 million lei for each of them. The shipyard of Constanţa went into the red, accruing over 10 million lei in losses.

Gelu Stan, the executive director of the Romanian National Shipbuilder Association - ANCONAV, said: "In general, the crisis which began in 2009 has continued generating effects last year as well, and unfortunately will continue to have effects this year. The relatively small number of orders compared to the previous years, namely 2005-2007, and the increase in the manufacturing costs, are the main causes behind these negative results. This percentage was achieved in Brăila because it was the only shipyard which worked at full capacity. Constanţa and Mangalia build large ships of normal sizes, but the other shipyards build complex ships with high added value which allows them to turn out more profit due to the special equipment which they have".

In spite of this, the specialists in the shipbuilding industry have estimated a rising trend for the Romanian naval industry, as most shipyards reported the construction of new ships. "the forecasts are however positive starting with 2013, when the naval industry will return to an upward trend, and it is only in 2014 that it will enter normalcy in a percentage of 80% - 90%", the head of ANCONAV said. He said that the shipyards in Romania are very well rated internationally, due to the extremely attractive prices they offer ship-owners, to the quality of the ships and the speediness in their construction.

The shipyard of Mangalia specializes in containers of a minimum of 5500 TEU and bulk carriers of 80.000-180.000 TDW. The shipyard of Constanţa builds 40-55,000 TDW tankers, Damen Galaţi builds military ships and tugboats/AHTS. STX Tulcea and Brăila specialize in supply vessels /AHTS and tugboats, whereas the shipyards of Giurgiu, Severnav and Orşova focus mostly on riverships and coastal ships.