After decades where shipbuilding was a sick industry, a rush of orders for modern vessels has booked out dockyards around the world for years ahead. Operators who order ships today must expect to wait till 2009 or 2010 for delivery. European yards, able at last to earn profits again, have boosted their prices in recent years by about one third. That ensures zest at the world's biggest trade fair for suppliers to dockyards, the Shipbuilding, Machinery & Marine Technology (SMM) show, which opens in the German port city of Hamburg on Tuesday. Nearly 5,400 ships are on order worldwide, including tankers, container ships, bulk carriers and gas transporters. The hulls on order in the dockyards are equivalent to 28 per cent of the world's current merchant shipping fleet.