Shipbuilding in West Germany and the Netherlands, 1960-1980

The article presents a comparative analysis of the decline of the large shipyards in West Germany and the Netherlands in the 1960s and 1970s and shows a striking similarity between the shipyard strategies and state policies in both countries. In the 1960s and early 1970s neither managements nor governments recognized that shipbuilding was doomed to decline and assumed that the industry's problems could be overcome by new investment, mergers and acquisitions and credit facilities that compensated for the price advantage enjoyed by their Japanese competitors. In 1970-1974 optimism reigned and led to a sharp increase in new investment. After 1973 managements as well as governments were slow to recognise the threat of the oil crisis to shipbuilding. Indeed, even when contraction had actually begun, shipbuilders and the state in both nations were slow to devise and implement appropriate strategies.