SHIPBUILDING: GERMANYA Alfred lfred HartmannHartmannThe New Captain on the Bridge at VDR“For Germany it is important to remain a strong industrial location – including our shipping industry.”hipping owner Alfred Hartmann is the new President of the Asso-ciation of German Shipowners S(VDR). For the ? rst time a mid-size company owner is at the helm of the VDR, and this 68 year-old wants to bring the German shipping industry back on course. He discussed his plan with MR.A few years ago, you said during an in-terview that with some luck the ship-ping industry could overcome its cur-rent crisis and begin an upward trend. But the industry has not recovered. What went wrong? The consequences of the ? nancial crisis in 2008 have been heavy. In 2011 we could see some kind of upswing – but this, in turn, contributed to new vessel orders which once again created overca-pacities. Due to the crisis, the ship prices drastically dropped. On the other hand, a lot of investor money was in circulation – and they were looking for investment opportunities. Not to mention the fact that all of a sudden other ship types were more in demand than those which had been ordered. At the same time, oil pric-es increased drastically. Our industry is still suffering because of this, particular-C(5*2120,&6($7,1*6<67(06ly container and bulk shipping. We can )25$//0$5,1($33/,&$7,216see that some more vessels must be giv-C6+2&.0,7,*$7,1*0$5,1(en away by force because also the banks 6($7,1*6<67(06are still under pressure. Banks have not )25&20)257 6$)(7