Can the shipbuilding industry be revived?
Thousands of Ukranian shipbuilders are preying for a positive answer to this question. Yet the situation in the industry remains very difficult. By law shipbuilding is a priority sector in the Ukraines economy. It is a scientific and productional complex embracing over 80 enterprises, including 9 shipbuilding yards, 6 ship equipment producing enterprises, 11 plants of marine instrument-making, 27 scientific research institutes and design bureaus. The industrys workforce amounts to 84.3 thousand. The output is mostly cargo vessels to transport oil and oil products (tankers), ore, coal and grain (bulkers), reefers, timber carriers, fishing vessels (trawlers), hydrofoil passenger high speed craft, floating cranes, floating docks etc., as well as ship equipment. Through conversion shipyards have mastered production techniques for new types of vessels, which are competitive in the world market, and they mostly work for export. From 1992 to 1997 111 vessels, costing a total of 998m USD were
