The role of civilian shipyards in naval ship construction industry in Turkey

Nowadays it is known that there are 162 countries which have naval forces around the world. However a few of them has technical infrastructure and technological capability to design and construct its own naval ships. Nevertheless at present, countries began to wishing to construct their naval ships by their national capabilities, and evaluate this wish as an undispensable element of their national security. When we scrutinize Turkish naval shipbuilding industry we find that naval shipyards have been estaplished for maintenance and repair needs of national naval combatants which originates from foreign countries. At those years naval shipbuilding activities were held by government and these activities were strictly dependent to foreign technologies. This was the reason of the private sector's perfection level, lack of sufficient qualifications of shipbuilding ancillary industries and insufficient university support to shipbuilding industry. By the time Turkish Republic's economical power has got stronger, private sector has become more self-confident, even if it is not sufficient,shipbuilding ancillary industries has established and universities have established technical infrastructure to support shipbuilding industry. In the historical process Turkish naval ship building industry focused on maintanance and repairment activities untill 1960's. From these years to 1990's Turkish naval shipyards began producing naval combatants by means of foreign design and package material procurement. Subsequently foreigner main contractor model between 1990-2005 and from 2005 to present time national main contractor model is prioritized. Nowadays civilian shipyards owned by private sector have began to be effective in naval shipbuilding projects as well as naval shipyards. And naval ships produced by civilian shipyards have began to be exported to foreigner fleets besides meeting national requirements. In this study the role of civilian shipyards in naval shipbuilding industry is scrutinized carefully. First of all, historical development and actual condition of Turkish shipbuilding industry is presented. In this phase some interviews with the directors of shipyards at "Tuzla Private Sector Shipyards Zone" have been made besides academic literature. Next, naval and commercial ship definitions are made and differeces between these two type of platforms are brought out. In this section the organisation of naval and civilian shipyards are inspected also. Afterwards,as developed country examples, USA, China, Japan and Southern Korea shipbuilding industries were examined generally to determine the correct steps which should be followed by Turkey. Besides these countries French, German, English and İtalian naval and commercial shipbuilding industries' historical developments, actual conditions,naval ship procurement chains and actual naval shipyards were examined particularly because of these countries geographical closeness and fleet structure similarities with Turkey. Subsequently the advantages of private sector in naval projects are determined and private sector owned shipyards which participate in naval shipbuilding were introduced. After this section the naval ship procurement chain in our country has been defined particularly. Thereafter the importance of private sector in naval shipbuilding industry has analized by using 20 years long shipbuilding database. After that, naval projects undertaken by private sector are defined. At the end of the study, results were presented and precautions which should be taken to strengthen the private sector in naval shipbuilding industry have been proposed. In conclusion it is determined that; While commercial shipbuilding activities focusing on commercial profit, naval shipbuilding focuses on naval effectiveness. So a very sensitive balance between economy and naval effectiveness shoul be established. When scrutinised it is found that the developed countries have classified their shipyards according to their products such as boats, assistance ships, corvettes, frigates and submarines. So private sector shipyards in our country should be grouped according to their products such as boats, assistance ships, corvettes, frigates, big ships/LPD and submarines just like developed country examples. And also this classification of shipyards should be determined or designated by government. While making such classification it is proposed not to exceed three shipyards in a single group. It is also determined that developed countries have multi-production capabilities in their shipyards. This means that commercial and naval shipbuilding activities proceeds concurrently in the same shipyard. And also critical technology production, such as command and control system, main propolsion system, etc. is available in the same shipyards, too. So in our country shipyards should construct commercial ships parallel with naval ship construction, and also they should produce some critical technologies. Additionally it is also seen that naval shipbuilding projects are placed on contract by government under free market's commercial competition circumstances in developed countries. By this way it is purposed to render a competitive model. But also a bit amount of share is given to firms which couldn't obtain the contract to support them and not to let idle capasity in these shipyards. So in our country some share from naval shipbuilding projects should be given to shipyards which couldn't obtain the contract. Moreover developed countries have a serious amount of export rate besides meeting national fleets' needs. Because it is not seen cost-effect to generate a naval shipbuilding industry for only national fleet's requirements. So in our country naval ships which are constructed nationally should be exported to foreign countries just like developed countries. By this way, generation of a cost-effect naval shipbuilding industry shuld be proposed.