Buoyant is perhaps the best word to describe the overall status of the world marine market. As you flip through the pages of this year’s Annual World Yearbook, you will find a number of articles, from the status of the U.S. Shipbuilding market, to the pending boom in the offshore oil and gas markets, to the staggering climb in dayrates for the tanker and bulker markets, which clearly show the industry is on the the way up. That said, there are a number of challenges to be faced, challenges with solutions that will help to define the maritime market for decades to come. The construction of large commercial oceangoing ships was dominated last year by South Korea, which claimed a staggering 46 percent of all new orders, or about 18.5 million cgt, according to The Platou Report 2001.
