Shipbuilding Competitiveness: The Marketing Overview

Abstract

The analysis of competitiveness is to the fore in shipbuilding at present, in particular in the United States as shipyards position and benchmark themselves against international competition in the commercial sector. The impending Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development agreement has also focused attention in this direction. This analysis is normally primarily based on a comparison of productivity, comparing labor utilization with output. This is only one aspect of the competitive equation, however, and competitiveness is above all a matter of economics. The aim of this paper is to examine all aspects of competitiveness, both technical and economic, and to show how they fit together in the competitive equation, drawing conclusions for the U.S. industry.