A discussion on ship technology in the 1980s - Shipbuilding in the future

Abstract

The growth in world trade and hence the demand for shipping is expected to continue into the 1980s despite the present temporary recession. Many countries in the Mediterranean and Pacific area and in South and Central America see shipbuilding as their way to start along the road to industrial development, and will be favoured by good climatic and labour conditions which can now be joined to imported modern technology. Conventional shipbuilding will therefore grow rapidly in these countries. Western countries will be able to preserve their shipbuilding industries by keeping in the forefront ol technical development and by a rigorous examination of designs from the production point of view, in order to reduce the labour content, and make the management and control simpler. This means changing from a largely labour intensive craft industry to a capital intensive, manufacturing industry. In order to sustain this type of industry long runs of similar ships, standard components, modulai constructions much of it in production lines, using group technology, will be the pattern in the 1980s. Much research and development is already devoted to these techniques and the industry is already at the early stages of changing over to this type of working.