EU Industrial Maritime Strategy: a new era for shipbuilding and shipping?

Europe is fundamentally a waterborne continent, with the world’s largest collective maritime area and a vast network of inland waterways adding to Europe’s economic potential. 

However, the global landscape is shifting rapidly, presenting unprecedented challenges that threaten the stability of our supply chains and industrial base. 

To navigate this volatility, the European Commission proposed a new initiative, the EU Industrial Maritime Strategy, designed to bolster EU (maritime) resilience in an era of intense geopolitical competition and technological change.  

The EU Industrial Maritime Strategy provides a dedicated policy roadmap to safeguard the competitiveness of Europe’s maritime manufacturing and shipping sectors. It aims to consolidate the Union’s leadership in high-tech shipbuilding and emerging segments – such as autonomous vessels and underwater technologies – while supporting the supply or retrofit of up to 10.000 sustainable vessels by 2035. By addressing challenges like unfair global competition, decarbonisation financing, and the urgent need for upskilling the maritime workforce, the strategy secures the strategic assets necessary for Europe’s industrial resilience and net-zero transition. 

Let’s have a look.

 

Goal of the EU Industrial Maritime Strategy: rebuilding the competitiveness of shipyards 

While ports are the gateways to Europe, the maritime manufacturing and shipping industries serve as the assets that ensure Europe’s strategic autonomy and economic security. And that exactly the goal of the EU Industrial Maritime Strategy.  

Like other key European industries, the shipbuilding sector is also increasingly under pressure. Its market share has been eroded by massive state-driven investments and trade-distorting practices in third countries, most notably China. European shipyards have largely been pushed into high-value, low-volume niche markets like cruise ships and naval vessels, but even these segments are now facing increasing pressure from foreign competitors entering the field. 

The industry also faces a “twin transition” of digitalisation and decarbonisation that is both technically complex and costly. The Commission estimates that the annual financing needs for the decarbonisation of the EU vessel fleet alone fall between €2.4 billion and €8.5 billion. The transformation of the EU inland waterway fleet will require between €2.6 to €7.8 billion. And in the offshore wind segment, €4 billion will be needed only for foundations and turbine installation vessels to scale up existing capacity to at least 15 GW/year post-2030.   

This financial pressure is worsened by a sharp decline in the share of global shipping portfolios held by European banks, which dropped from 72% in 2013 to under 50% in 2023, which forces EU companies to seek financing from foreign institutions that often retain ownership of the vessels. Amplifying these issues is a workforce crisis as up to 40% of the shipbuilding workforce is expected to retire by 2030, threatening a potential shortage and massive loss of industrial know-how. 

To preserve EU maritime resilience, the Commission proposes in the Industrial Maritime Strategy: 

• An ambitious vision to support the industry in its ambition to supply and refit up to 10.000 sustainable vessels by 2035.  

• A cornerstone of this plan is the launch of the EU Industrial Maritime Value Chains Alliance, which will map industrial capacities and identify business cases for manufacturing in Europe.  

• To counter unfair competition, the Commission will explore sector-specific trade measures to protect against the unfair pricing of vessels by overseas competitors. 

 

What’s the impact of the EU Industrial Maritime Strategy on shipyards?

Demand-side measures are equally vital to ensure that “Made in EU” remains a viable choice for shipowners. The Commission will work on the following: 

• In cooperation with Member States, aggregate a multi-year pipeline of public orders for vessels such as ferries, research ships, and icebreakers to create a long-term demand signal for European shipyards. 

• The Commission sees public procurement as an instrument to foster demand for clean, innovative Made in EU goods and services and commits to proposing targeted non-price requirements ‘in support of the EU’s industrial resilience and economic security objectives’. This is expected in the upcoming revision of the Public Procurement Directive (Q2 2026). 

• To support military mobility, a dedicated support mechanism for dual-use ferry construction will be pursued, encouraging the building of ships in Europe that can serve both civilian and military needs. 

• The Commission will also pursue to support the use of nuclear power propulsion in commercial shipping to achieve a global leadership position. 

• Innovation and skills remain the ultimate enablers of this industrial revival. The “Shipyards of the Future” flagship call will be rolled out to support the testing of advanced robotics and AI in shipyard ecosystems, mitigating labour shortages and enhancing productivity. 

• To address the skills gap, the Commission will help establish a network of training centres across the EU and increase the participation of maritime education in the Erasmus+ programme.  

• By encouraging Member States to ringfence national ETS revenues and by revising the EU Taxonomy criteria, the strategy aims to improve the investment climate and ensure that the European maritime sector remains a global leader in clean and digital technologies. 

• Finally, the Commission is launching a high-level Maritime Industries and Ports Board to ensure a continued exchange on the implementation of both the EU Ports Strategy and the EU Industrial Maritime Strategy. If you want to have impact, it’s important to have a seat at the table. 

 

Publyon is your safe haven! Here is our advice for you  

At Publyon, we think that this strategy, together with the Ports Strategy, can represent a turning point for the sector, as the Commission rightfully turned its attention to revitalise EU ports and shipbuilders.  

Both strategies are just a first step to provide an opportunity for predictability and bankability for ports-industrial clusters and to rebuild Europe’s maritime industrial base before supply chains drift elsewhere.  

During the upcoming years, the Commission will start implementing them. It is therefore vital for businesses to keep track of what’s coming up. This is where Publyon comes in! 

For ports, the EU Ports Strategy provides clear priorities: grid capacity and electrification. The Commission itself says growing electricity demand makes grid capacity key, and it ties delivery to the Grids Package, permitting acceleration, and structured grid planning. That is the practical bottleneck that blocks shore power, hydrogen handling, and new industrial tenants.  

For shipbuilders and maritime manufacturing, the Industrial Maritime Strategy gives parallel priorities: competitiveness plus fair competition, backed by a stronger toolbox and more demand signals (public procurement criteria, “made in EU” approaches, and finance instruments). It identifies two other major risks: the finance leakage away from European banks, and the skills cliff coming by 2030.  

And that’s where the bridge between the two sectors lies: ports can only host new clean-industry projects if permitting and grids move fast, and shipyards can only scale clean vessels if demand and finance become credible.

If either side stalls, investment looks to the US, the Middle East, or Asia. The Commission’s strategies clearly acknowledge that risk; now it’s up to you to be in charge, know what’s coming up and potentially help shape the future of your sector.  

And Publyon stands ready to help! Want to know more? Whether you want to better understand the implications of both strategies or explore what we can do for you, get in touch with our Senior Consultant and Transport expert Martijn Meijer via M.Meijer@Publyon.com.