Schiffsfinanzierung in Deutschland: Maritime Dienstleistung mit internationaler Bedeutung vor großen Herausforderungen

Ship finance in Germany. Challenges ahead. Despite its relatively short coastline, Germany is one of the leading economies in the global shipping industry. Although the focal point of the global shipbuilding industry has shifted eastwards by degrees over the past few decades, Germany has become one of the leading economies for shipping-related services, in particular ship financing. Many of the most important lenders both private and public are located in Germany, enabling Hamburg in particular to become one of the key locations for global ship financing. However, ship financing in Germany has been heavily hit by the global financial and economic crisis since mid 2008. The partly dysfunctional lending market has led to a significant credit crunch which could endanger Germany´s leading position in the global ship financing market going forward. Some of the large commercial banks from China have recently entered the European ship financing market, and it looks like the focal point of lending capacity could shift eastwards - just as shipbuilding capacities shifted from Europe to Asia over the past few decades.