Danish marine market research

The report called ‘Employment and production in Blue Denmark 2016’, which looks at the period between 2002 and 2012, puts this down to the two industries achieving increased value creation with fewer employees helping to keep the shipping industry stable.

Troels Lund Poulsen, Danish Minister for Business and Growth, said “Blue Denmark is one of the most important industries in Denmark. The report stresses the importance of strengthening the efforts made to secure good framework conditions for the maritime industries so that we can secure their competitiveness also in the future.”

The shipping industry was hit hard by the crisis in 2009, but the report shows that it has since regained lost earnings and productivity and has, all in all, experienced a productivity growth of 1.7% annually compared to 1.2% in the overall Danish economy. During this period, the equipment industry witnessed a high average productivity growth of 5.2% annually.

With regards to productivity growth in Blue Denmark during the same period (measured as the GVA in constant prices per employee) figures had an average of -3.8% annually compared to 1.2% for the overall Danish economy reflecting a decrease in productivity in the oil and gas industry.

But the equipment and shipbuilding industries experienced an average productivity growth of, respectively, 5.2 and 4.0% annually. In the shipping industry, the productivity growth was 1.7% annually, though interrupted by a sharp decline in 2009 during the financial crisis.

The report concludes that the fact that employment in Blue Denmark has in general remained unchanged should be seen in the light of the oil and gas industry pulling down the productivity increase, but shipping pulling the overall figure up.