"This will be our best shipbuilding fair ever"

For Hamburg Messe und Congress (HMC) it is like a new start, the world's most important shipbuilding trade fair SMM from next Tuesday to Friday. For the first time since 2018 and thus since the beginning of the pandemic, the most important trade fair for Hamburg is taking place again in person. The municipal trade fair company expects around 2000 exhibitors from a total of 70 nations and over 40,000 visitors from more than 100 countries. Eleven halls will be used as exhibition areas this year for ship designs, propulsion technologies, interior fittings, logistics for the maritime industry and much more.

The main topics of this 30th SMM are the maritime energy transition, the digital transformation of shipping and climate change. “I expect the upcoming SMM to be very special, if not the best ever. And not just because we are celebrating the 30th edition," said Bernd Aufderheide, head of Hamburg Messe und Congress, WELT. "After more than two years of video conferences, we feel that there is a lot of catching up to do when it comes to personal encounters with business partners."

The issue of presence has kept trade fair companies like HMC very busy since the beginning of the pandemic in early 2020. The trade fair industry improvised its way through the first two years of Corona with digital and sometimes mixed formats. For a long time it was unclear whether and how trade visitors and the general public would return to the exhibition grounds as soon as the pandemic situation permitted.

"Many of our customers confirm that personal contact, especially in business relationships that are based on trust, is difficult to replace with digital formats," says Aufderheide. "Many of our exhibitors and visitors also emphasize how practical it is to have numerous encounters in the compact format of a four-day trade fair that would otherwise only be possible with many time-consuming and expensive (flight) trips to different continents." many companies to the "big" trade fairs: "Fortunately, as the world's leading trade fair, we are at the top of the planning calendar. For those responsible in the industry, attending SMM is a must because they can experience all the important innovations in maritime technology here.”

Trade fairs like the SMM are important for the shipping industry above all because a far-reaching transformation is imminent in all key industrial sectors. Time is running out. International merchant shipping wants to become “climate-neutral” by 2050, as the bodies of its umbrella organization IMO have agreed with the member states. "Biofuels, hydrogen-based, so-called e-fuels, but also fuel cell technology or wind power to support propulsion: the maritime energy transition is also a key topic at the exhibition stands, in the accompanying conference program and on the new 'Transition Stages' on the topics 'digital', , Green' and 'Cruise

One stage is dedicated to alternative drives, environmental technologies and sustainability, while another is all about automation, digitization and data management: "Because the topic of energy transition is of overarching importance, we are opening a round of the gmec environmental conference on September 7th for the first time the general public.” Environmentalists should discuss with those responsible from shipping whether and how the maritime energy transition can succeed.

Against this background, German shipbuilding is under severe pressure. This week it was announced that the insolvent company Fosen Yard Werft in Emden will close with its 75 employees. Germany's oldest shipyard Pella Sietas in Hamburg, which filed for bankruptcy in 2021, has since gone under. From January to July, the Hamburg insolvency administrator Christoph Morgen found new owners for the three MV shipyards in Wismar, Stralsund and Rostock-Warnemünde, as well as for the Lloyd shipyard in Bremerhaven. Until the bankruptcy filings in January, all four shipyards belonged to the tourism and gaming group Genting Hong Kong, which had cruise ships built in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, primarily for the Chinese market.

"The pandemic has hit the cruise industry in particular badly, many orders have been canceled or postponed," said Aufderheide. "But now the audience is coming back - and the industry is drawing hope again and will also find its place at the SMM." However, two of the four former MV shipyards will no longer build civilian ships in the future. ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) will be manufacturing submarines in Wismar from 2024. The shipyard in Rostock-Warnemünde has served as an arsenal for the German Navy since August 1, warships are now being serviced and converted there.

Not only in Germany is naval shipbuilding becoming more important in view of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine: "Of course, additional perspectives are currently opening up for the industry due to the massive expansion of naval forces planned in many countries," said Aufderheide. “The Bundeswehr special fund alone provides for investments of almost 20 billion euros in the Navy, and German companies are among the technology leaders in this area. You will also find what you are looking for at the SMM.”

The German shipbuilding supply industry is in a better position than the shipyards themselves. It is networked worldwide and can compensate for regional fluctuations in the shipbuilding business more quickly. "The order situation in the German shipbuilding and offshore supply industry is good - almost too good, because the overflowing order backlog is also due to the fact that current orders cannot be delivered as required by the customer due to missing components. The global supply chains are still disrupted," said Jörg Mutschler WELT, Managing Director North and Marine Equipment and Systems of the Machinery and Plant Engineering Association VDMA.

Technologically, it is about as broad an approach as possible, i.e. not only about more efficient drives in new buildings, but also in the retrofitting of ships. "It is primarily about the possibilities of retrofitting the existing global fleet of sea and inland vessels, because the majority of all transport takes place by sea. Here, shipping has a great deal of leverage in implementing a sustainable logistics chain.”

With a market share of around 80 percent for two-stroke diesel engines – for container ships and bulk carriers, for example – and 25 percent for smaller four-stroke diesel engines, MAN Energy Solutions is the leading engine manufacturer in the maritime industry. "Despite all the global economic uncertainties, our order books are well filled," said Uwe Lauber, CEO of MAN Energy Solutions, WELT. "We are seeing a rapidly growing interest in alternative fuels in the industry - methanol, ammonia and synthetic methane, all of these fuels can be produced in a climate-neutral manner," said Lauber. "If we succeed in making large quantities available to the market quickly, shipping in Europe can be climate-neutral from 2045."

Reinhard Lüken, General Manager of the Association for Shipbuilding and Marine Technology (VSM) in Hamburg, does not take it for granted that the SMM will be held in the Hanseatic city for the 30th time this year, "in an industry that is increasingly dominated by Asia “. High subsidies for shipbuilding, especially in China and South Korea, have been a problem for German and European shipbuilding for decades.

One consequence of this pressure, however, is that local manufacturers of maritime technology are producing better and better products: "The fact that it is always possible to bring the entire shipbuilding world to Hamburg is first and foremost a great achievement by the professional trade fair team," said Lüken. “But it is also an expression of a still very efficient industry in this country, which always manages to defend its technological leadership - and which is needed more urgently than ever. Because the maritime economy is in the middle of a massive upheaval.”