The European nautical
industry, world leader for its quality, will go under if the European
authorities don´t act rapidly. The internal market is strong (48
million Europeans practice nautical activities), but the crisis has
sank the sales by half already during in its first two years, and put
he second hand market in the hands of the banks, who confiscate
boats for outstanding credit payments. The exports are in agony
becuase of the normative and various tariffs and fees in their main
markets, a hardship for an industry formed mainly by small and
medium size companies. The sector complains that the Asian countries
sell for half the price and they don´t comply with the european
security and contamination regulations thanks to the lack of
inspections. The situation in Spain deteriorates, in Brussels eyes,
because of unjustified tax policies.
The nautical industry
report: A transformation accelerated by the crisis, by the European
Economic and Social Committee (EESC), in agreement with the sector,
demands common policies to defend the industry formed by 37.000
companies that give direct jobs to 234.000 people and invoiced 20.000
million euros in year 2011. Co-author of the report, Patrizio Pesci,
also a co-president of the Advisory Committee of Industrial
Transformations of EESC, sees an an uncertain future. “ Antonio
Tajani, responsible for the Industry and
Enterprise and vice-president of the European Commission, has given
his guarantees to defend the industry, and the Commission has
promised to make a Green Book, but the bureaucracy in Brussels is
exasperating, and in the meantime, the companies close or are bought
up by the Chinese”, explains Pesci.
The worldwide nautical
industry constructs boats under loads of normatives. “This slows
down the European exports to USA, which demands boats to be
constucted under its own normative. Only the French multinational
Groupe Beneteau can comply easily. The rest are small and medium size
companies”, clarifies Pesci. Astondoa, Rodman and Starfisher, the
three major Spanish boat builders “cope with difficulty the
requirements of the american market”, explains Carlos Sanlorenzo,
the general secretary of the National Association of the Nautical
Enterprises (ANEN).
Europe
is the number 1 recreational yachting destination in the world, with
66.000 km of coastline
It is essential to
invest in innovative products, reduce costs of production, harmonize
the normative, create a European brand and promote joint selling
efforts. “We are a world power, but we are losing markets to Turkey
and the Asian countries. We have to talk less, and join our forces to
defend ourselves against them”, asserts Pesci. Europe, North
America, Australia and New Zealand are the main buyers of European
boats, and we should be going to emerging markets where there is
money. Brazil and China have money, but there are too many problems.
Brazil applies some import duties that almost double up the price of
the boats, and China demands high technical standards of the adquired
boats, only “to copy them the next day”, according to Pesci. “We
need to negotiate the exports jointly according to European normative
and labels”, he remarks.
The problems of the
sector are not restricted to the manufacturing. The problems reach
the 4.500 ports and marinas with 1,75 million moorings. A fleet of
6,3 million boats drive innumerous companies of maintenance,
financial and insurance services, sea schools and tourism. Europe is
the number 1 recreational yachting destination in the world with
66.000 km of coastline, and 70% of the chárter activity is
concentrated in the Mediterranean. A tangle of fiscal processes and
national regulations (licenses, matriculation, security rules,
taxation etc.) complicate the business to a point of seizure. “Such
differences in treatment do no exist in other mediums of transport,
like cars, trains or airplanes”, assures Pesci.
Article from El Pais.
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