Shipbuilding in Italy at the End of the Crisis: Is There a Road to Recovery?

Until the year 2008, the segment of boating enjoyed an excellent state of health (AMI-Censis. La sfida della nautica: porti, servizi, tecnologie. Terza indagine sul turismo nautico in Italia, 2008), although even then elements of possible weakness were beginning to emerge (Benevolo. Luci ed ombre del turismo nautico, in Analisi gestionale dei porti turistici nella nautica da diporto, Il caso di Imperia, a cura di Quagli A. pp. 212–253, 2008). Domestic production grew at high rates, port facilities were multiplying and new ports were designed because the offer of berths, at least in many areas of the country, was not able to meet the potential demand. Later the sector went through a period of uninterrupted crisis with heavy economic consequences in terms of loss of employment. Today we are still in the midst of a crisis—possibly at the dawn of a recovery—after a fall that has lasted for more than 7 years and that has affected all economies globally. In the nautical sector it caused a heavy decline, even greater in percentage than the average of other sectors of the economy, given its peculiar characteristics of elasticity. Indeed, the yachting sector has undergone a series of profound changes which have affected the main highways in the industry. In Europe, all variations are negative, with the result that the number of units produced more than halved over the course of the 4 years under analysis; on the other side of the ocean, the United States, by far the largest producer, saw a 34% decline in the number of boats, amounting to over 250,000 units less. These data are further confirmed in the order book of superyachts. A decline in the number of orders for the third consecutive year in 2011, was followed by a substantial stability from 2012 to 2014 and a little rise in 2015. In the global ranking of boats over 24 m, Italy always comes first, followed by the Netherlands, Turkey, USA, Great Britain, Germany, Taiwan, China, France and New Zealand.