Specialist facilities in Europe are facing heightened risks as bigger players threaten to dominate and overwhelm them.
Niche shipyards that build offshore vessels and dredgers could face more competition as mainstream yards move into their field of speciality.
Though European yards have not been affected by order cancellations to the same degree as Asian shipyards building bulkers and boxships, the General Secretary of the Community of European Shipyards Association, Reinhard Luken, said that if 80 percent of the mass market slowed down over the next three years, niche builders would feel the strain. If the gigantic Korean and Chinese shipyards were to start building smaller, more specialised vessels, small European yards could possibly be shunted out of the picture altogether.
Mr Luken said that as long as Asian shipyards provided fair and equal conditions, European shipyards would not have to fear increased competition.
