The Shipyards’ & Maritime Equipment Assocation - SEA Europe - has approved an application by the Ukraine Maritime Cluster to join its membership.

With an annual turnover of €1.4 billion according to SEA Europe, the Ukrainian maritime sector is a substantial one, creating more than 50,000 direct jobs in 1200 companies, it says.

SEA Europe

Its representative body, the Cluster, began life in the Mykolaiv region before expanding to Kherson, Odesa and Kyiv.

“On behalf of SEA Europe members, I very much welcome the Ukrainian Maritime Cluster to the family of European shipyards and maritime equipment manufacturers,” said secretary general Christophe Tytgat.

“Some SEA Europe member companies have offices and/or industrial activities in Ukraine and have taken care of Ukrainian families working in the local companies after the war. There has therefore been a close link with Ukraine’s maritime community.”

Tytgat told Maritime Journal that the cluster would make use of networking opportunitues within SEA Europe and learn about various projects the EU is offering. 

“The cluster can participate as part of consortia that will be formed,” he said. ”Several SEA Europe member-companies have offices and/or activities in Ukraine or were carrying out orders. By incorporating the cluster, SEA Europe has taken a further – logical – step in also tying the contacts between both communities at the level of the association.”

SEA Europe represents the European shipbuilding industry in 15 countries, including Turkey, Greece, Romania, Italy, Croatia, Poland, Germany, Finland, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain and Portugal. Ukraine makes the 16th. Its remit covers production, maintenance, repair, retrofit and conversion of all types of ship and floating structure in the commercial and naval sectors. 

”In these very difficult times for our companies, cooperation with and learning from our European colleagues will no doubt be instrumental in rebuilding and enhancing the maritime activities in my country,” said Olena Zhukova, executive director of the Ukrainian Maritime Cluster. “As the Ukrainian Maritime Cluster, we are fully committed to planning future reconstruction of Ukraine and cooperating with our European partners to develop joint projects.”