(Final)
17 JECKU Top Executive Meeting
November 6, 2008, Miyazaki
thChairman’s Note

The 17th JECKU Top Executive Meeting was held on November 6, 2008 inMiyazaki. Eighty-one senior executives from the leading shipbuilding
companies in Japan, Europe, China, Korea and the USA attended themeeting.
The meeting was held at the time of increasing concerns over slowdownof global economy spreading beyond the financial market, and so theattending shipbuilding leaders actively exchanged opinion on the world
economy, shipping and shipbuilding market trends and other important
issues such as cost development, human resources, enhanced rules andregulations, environmental concerns, intellectual property rights, to sharecommon understanding and perception of the industry at large.
Themeeting

noted

that

theshipbuilding

demand,which

wasunprecedentedly prosperous for some time in the past years, is now
showing signs of weakness. This may lead to a drawback particularly incontrast to a steady growth in shipbuilding capacity for some years to come.
The need for a rational judgment of the situation based on long term
perspective was voiced towards a sound and balanced development of theindustry.
On the other hand, the opinions of the attendants were echoed that thecurrent business environment for shipping and shipbuilding will finally be aturning point for a sound and prosperous development of world shipbuilding
industry.
The increase in shipbuilding costs, particularly characterised by the steep
rise in the price of steel for some years in the past, was a focal point ofdiscussion, noting a recent downward in the price of steel and raw materials
1that began with the economic slowdown. While concerns on the businessperformance were understood, concern was also addressed from theresponsibility aspect to serve other industries with a stable supply of ships.
The leaders invite other industries to share common concerns so that
repetition of rises of this nature can be avoided in the future.
The meeting also highlighted the human resources issue so that theshipbuilding industries would continuously make efforts to ensure thatshipbuilding technology and skills are transferred to the new generation.
Furthermore, with regards to the tightening of rules and regulations, themeeting discussed that the shipbuilding industry would do its best topromote safety and to protect the environment and would need to joinvoices. The meeting considered highly of activities of the Committee forExpertise of Shipbuilding Specifics (CESS), and further support was given by
the attendants for the continuation of CESS activities.
A further aspect of importance was the Intellectual Property Rights, where
the leaders were all concerned for promoting awareness to all concerned
industries as well as within the shipbuilding industry itself.
As it was jointly expressed during the meeting while the global economy isexpected to be slow for a while, the newbuilding market will be able torecover gradually, only if the financial markets normalise early on. A further
point was also raised that globally shipbuilding industry needs to makeevery effort to strengthen its competitiveness and create new demand byconstantly developing new products and markets.
The meeting concluded that the participants will continue to work towards
a sustainable industry and agreed to meet in Berlin at the end of October
next year.

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