Research on the sustainability conditions of turnover of ship building industry in Turkey

In this thesis study, the situation of ship building industry, which has been developing to become an important production sector in Turkey. A comparative analysis of the turnover and potential of Turkish ship building industry has been performed, and the sustainable increase of its share in the global market has been examined. New obligations submitted each day regarding the safety of life and freight, prevention of pollution, efficiency, etc. require the renewal of the commercial ships. The primary reasons why Turkey has been chosen for ship building are its wide experience in the production of tankers with 10,000 dwt tons or less, its cultural and geographical adjacency to European shipowner companies which hold the majority of world?s fleets, and its quality/price ratio. However, the lack of adequate government support, finance, administrative deficiencies, local content ratio, difficulties in raw material, efficiency and vocational education have become the major problems of the industry, which need to be solved.The relationship between the ship building industry and the macro economical changes in Turkey has also been examined by applying a causality test, and concluded that the sector is affected by the global economy instead of local changes. The dramatical jump witnessed in the ship building industry during the economical crysis in 2001, by contrast with the downtrend in most indicators including GNP at the same period, has been evaluated as a supportive development to the test results.Keywords: Turkish Ship Building Industry, Sustainable Turnover, Heavy Industry, Sea Commerce