Circular economy in shipbuilding and marine networks - A focus on remanufacturing in ship repair

Abstract

There are about 85,000 ships in the world, with 82 % being at least 5 years old, and over half at least 15 years old [4]. All of these ships require, or will require, regular repair and maintenance. The European shipbuilding and marine industry is highly networked. The EU-28 marine supplies industry’s 1st and 2nd tier enterprises employed about 390,000 people in up to about 30,000 companies [10]. In short remanufacturing is an industrial process of restoring used products to an ‘as new’ condition. Remanufacturing is a key strategy within the circular economy and an important technology for reducing CO2 emission, saving material, labour, energy and prolonging the “end-of life” of products, components and systems. The paper describes different types of ship repair activities, their frequency and the collaborative networks involved. Furthermore, for each type of repair activity the paper reports the potential of applying remanufacturing approaches, involved companies and their role in a remanufacturing process.