The Italian government has committed to a significant program of support for the country’s shipbuilding industry, pledging to push forward publicly funded contracts, provide export credits for the yards, and lobby in Brussels for policies to assist the sector, foreign media reports.
At a long-delayed crisis meeting in Rome with industry leaders, union representatives and local politicians from shipbuilding areas, economic development ministry officials acceded to many of the demands made of it by an increasingly desperate industry.
Italian shipbuilding is in dire straits as a prolonged order drought takes a steady toll on workloads at yards around the country, and on employment. Thousands have already been laid off and, despite a small flurry of orders in recent weeks, the prognosis remains bleak.
In a statement issued after talks ended on Friday evening, the ministry put the onus on all players in the talks doing their part to sustain what it described as a key strategic industry for the country.
The government, it stated, would “support the shipbuilding sector through a series of initiatives and public orders.
“Fincantieri undertakes to maintain its current organizational set-up, not to close any yards, and to share out, where possible, the work deriving from new orders between those facilities.”
Indeed, in the wake of the announcement, company chief executive Giuseppe Bono said the hull of the second cruiseship ordered by Oceania would be built at Castellammare di Stabia, the yard most immediately threatened by a lack of orders.
By the same token, local institutions “will activate appropriate structural and plant initiatives to fill current gaps in productivity, particularly in Castellammare di Stabia, Palermo and Sestri Ponente,” all of which the sites of Fincantieri yards.
For the government’s side, the ministry promised to “provide export credit financing for the commercial initiatives of Fincantieri, Nuovi Cantieri Apuania (a Tuscan yard long threatened with closure) and other facilities, via credit insurance organisation Sace and the Bank of Deposits and Loans.
Starting in January, it would kick-start the coastguard’s recently financed fleet renewal program, bring forward construction of a logistical support unit and a multipurpose ship for the Navy and civil protection, setting aside €50m for the start-up of the program, and push for the construction of floating prisons.
It would also ensure that the upcoming transfer to the regions of state-owned ferry operator Tirrenia’s local operating companies would provide an opportunity for fleet renewal through new construction at both Fincantieri and NCA.
In addition, it said it would push at European level for an extensive program of fleet renewal targeted at both the commercial and passenger fleets, the better to raise environmental and safety standards.
It would also engage in an effort in Brussels “to identify policies to defend and support the shipbuilding industry”, committing to meet with industry representatives at a later date to discuss progress.
