Damen Shipyards Group invests in China

Damen Shipyards Group is an internationally oriented company with shipyards in many parts of the world. Since 1994 the organisation has been active in China where this year Damen Shipyards Changde was opened. The production activities of this shipyard and also now two other shipyards, Damen Shipyards Yichang and Damen Marine Components Suzhou, as well as two joint ventures with two shipyards, AFAI Southern Shipyard and Penlai Bohai Shipyard, focus, in particular, on exports. Now that growth in the market seems to be slowly shifting, China is being paid full attention from Henk van Herwijnen, Regional Sales Director Asia Pacific.
Where previously Poland and Romania were important countries for the Damen Group to build ships in accordance to Dutch quality standards, China has taken over. Van Herwijnen: 'Around ten or fifteen Dutch engineers stay in China on a continuous basis to monitor the quality level and to train Chinese employees. Damen has been producing tugs in China for more than ten years. They have a reputation of good quality, something we are very proud of'. 
Capacity expansion
Damen Shipyards Group started to build aluminium ferries in 2000 in Singapore. Since capacity expansion was deemed necessary due to the increase in demand in a variety of ferries, an appeal was made to the Damen shipyards in China that had previously produced hulls for these boats. In 2005 capacity was expanded to the country with the highest population. 'The demand for aluminium ferries is virtually staying the same. There even seems to be slight growth. Tourism will after all shift. Europeans, for example, travel less frequently outside of Europe but this only means that the demand for ferries within Europe will simply increase.'
Hunt for product/market combinations
The Regional Sales Director Asia Pacific can only see many new opportunities in China. Van Herwijnen: 'We can offer a broad product range to the Chinese market. We are currently in a process of searching for the correct product/market combinations. Two weeks a month I am active in China searching for the right entry points there. A fascinating but slow process; especially finding the decision-makers within the organisation structures of Chinese companies is difficult.' Van Herwijnen invests in different approach strategies and also sees the value of trade trips of The Dutch Agency for International Business and Cooperation (EVD) and visiting the largest Asiatic trade fair, Marintec. 'We are booking more and more progress. China is more than just a big challenge to us.'Damen Shipyards Group is a true family company that started in 1927 with a single shipyard. The expansion that Damen has subsequently experienced up to now, 2009, with more than thirty shipyards, is tremendous. The shipyards build a broad range of vessels in standard designs and series ranging from small auxiliary boats to large port tugs and fast ferries. In addition, five Shipyards mainly carry out repair work.