What challenges might the industry face in the future?
The boatyard industry has faced a number of problems during the years within different areas, including Covid-19, fluctuating economic states and difficulties with finding competent labor force.
Since trends in the world are constantly shifting, these and similar problems would not be surprising in the future. However, the boatyard industry has a competitive advantage relative to other industries, since most boat owners have an interest in boating and will therefore not sell their boats firsthand. Further, many boatyards are in the aftermarket which implies that a, for instance, decrease in boat purchases doesn’t affect the boatyard too much, since the biggest part of their operations are repairs.
Economic
challenges
According to the CEO of Vindö Marin, Rolf Carlgren, the boatyard managed to handle the Covid waves quite well since most of their commerce is global. This meant that the weakened purchasing power due to the pandemic and the economic recession didn’t affect them too much, on the contrary, the weakened Swedish currency due to the recession worked to their advantage. In other words, the increased material- and labor costs evened out with the increased global market, at least in the aftermarket. Ebba Lindgren, from Ringens Varv, views the labor movement as a potential issue in the industry, since it might contribute to shorter working days and boatyards being closed more due to lack of personnel. This affects the boatyard’s service and therefore also their economic growth.
challenges with social trends
One aspect that many stakeholders see as a potential problem is the lack of competent labor force in the future. It has become a trend in society to acquire longer educations which has meant a decrease in the potential labor force at boatyards. Lars Sköld, former boat manufacturer, considers this to be a consequence of the industry becoming less attractive and there not being any relevant education path to work at a boatyard. All boatyards demand competent personnel, so in order to deal with this arising problem, some boatyards recruit students directly from high schools in Gothenburg. Rolf Carlgren at Vindö Marin also states that they use some of their profit into hiring competent staff and being able to educate their staff.
Further, Lars Sköld has observed a trend in the industry that people without a boating interest are purchasing boats. This is a consequence of a larger supply being offered to customers regarding boat sizes, complexity and user friendliness. However, this also means that a larger number of boat owners are less competent in the field and might not choose the right choice of anti-fouling paint for instance.
political and legal challenges
Another potential problem is that the world is shifting towards becoming more environmentally friendly, and with this comes demands and requirements from customers, municipalities, EU etc. According to Helena Gellerman from the traffic committee of the Swedish Parliament, most of the requirements come from a global level, such as IMO (the international maritime organization). This leads to legislation in Sweden being quite difficult, since most of the regulations, for instance the ones regarding anti-fouling paint, are regulated on an international level.
This is also confirmed by Lina Persson, Expert in Maritime Environmental Issues at the Swedish Transport Agency, who also states that there are different regulations regarding which areas count as coastal or marine environments. This is something that leads to making legislation even more difficult.
Gellerman further states that there have been two general trends in the world lately, which are connected to an environmental transition and achieving economic growth respectively. To handle these trends, it is obligatory for companies to keep up with the innovative solutions that come these days and to achieve economic growth in order to afford the environmental transition. One aspect to this is, according to Gellerman, that the polluter will have to pay an increasing amount of fees due to the emissions caused by them. From this, the conclusion that using an anti-fouling paint that leaches a higher amount of toxins than needed will have to pay fees for this in the future, can be drawn. How boatyards adapt to these potential problems vary, boatyards such as Vindö Marin bring in new more environmentally friendly products as they enter the market.
However, not all boatyards will adapt to the environmental demands until it is required from them. Lina Persson thinks that more regulations and demands, such as a chemical ban, are coming in the near future.
Lina Persson finishes that the development on land progresses much faster than in the maritime industry, stating that we are approximately 20 years behind the road sector. Traditionally, boating has been less regulated, "What ends up in the ocean, doesn't show,", she said, underscoring the pressing need for immediate action.
technical challenges
Catharina Frisell, technical specialist at AkzoNobel, has provided some insights surrounding the technical developments that are being made in the boatyard industry. One thing that is in the development stage is using silicone paint as an effective solution instead of anti-fouling paint. This would release less toxins, but it also has a more complex application system which requires more maintenance. Further, a toxin free paint might be difficult to introduce since it requires that it works as efficiently and isn’t too expensive.
Another technical challenge is adapting to new fuel options being used. Since the world is moving towards becoming more environmentally friendly, the use of electric motors has increased. This requires different technical skills and equipment which leads to boatyards having to adapt the way they work and what tools they use.
Environmental challenges
The environment and climate are shifting and both boatyards and boat owners need to keep up with these changes. A first step towards tracking the changes is to collect data. Researcher Leon Green considers there to be a coastal data gap of salinity for instance. Salinity, and other parameters such as temperature, are important to measure since environmental changes can heavily depend on them.
Leon states that one of the biggest potential problems for the future of the industry is to implement a sustainable society and get people connected to boatyards to change their behaviors. To help with this, one suggestion from Leon Green is to support a change in behavior. For instance, this could be to charge people who work for a positive environmental change less than people who pollute.
