Japan, S Korea and China as well? From yesterday's SMW:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/06/business/worldbusiness/06ships.html?adxnnl=1&oref=login&pagewanted=1&adxnnlx=1105120202-ICHeb3Zc1Ru/r8Yez/8n/wKorean Shipbuilders See China's Shadow
snip>
Not content with making some of the most complex products on the world market, naval engineers for the Hyundai Heavy Industries Company are drawing up computer models to increase the size of the largest container ships by more than 25 percent, creating a supervessel that could carry 10,000 steel containers, enough freight capacity for 30 million pairs of sneakers.
Only in 2004, when South Korea exported ships with a value of $15.09 billion, did it definitively wrest from Japan the status of the world's leading shipbuilding nation.
But the South Koreans are already looking over their shoulder at China, which has embarked on a path toward becoming the largest shipbuilder by 2015. Chinese competition, which has unnerved American manufacturers, is also putting much of Asia on edge as China rapidly narrows the technological gap with higher-wage Asian neighbors.
snip>
After receiving record orders in 2004 - for 102 ships worth $8.3 billion - Hyundai can afford to be picky. With more than three years of work already booked, it is letting Chinese yards win contracts for low-end jobs like simple tankers and bulk carriers. Hyundai has three joint ventures in China, and it already farms out some of its low-technology shipbuilding work to these companies.
South Korea's two other major shipbuilders, Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering and Samsung Heavy Industries, are juggling a similar wealth of orders. Foreign investors own 24 percent of Hyundai Heavy Industries and 36 percent of Daewoo Shipbuilding.
more...