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| Indonesian SIGMA class Corvette |
By WENDELL MINNICK and PAUL KALLENDER-UMEZU
TAIPEI — As U.S. and European defense budgets experience nervous breakdowns, the Asian market for new naval and coast guard ships to protect fisheries, commerce and littoral claims sees no slowdown.
No more evidence is needed than the International Maritime Defence Exhibition (2013 IMDEX Asia) in May in Singapore. According to Jimmy Lau, managing director of Experia Events, this year’s exhibition space for IMDEX is already 80 percent booked.
“We will be welcoming new exhibitors, including Fincantieri, Luerssen, Scania, Schiebel and Westport Shipyard, alongside returning top companies, such as DCNS, Lockheed Martin and ST Engineering,” he said.
This year’s IMDEX also will see an increased presence of shipbuilders providing offshore patrol vessels (OPVs) and smaller patrol vessels, “which are looking to tap growing demand for such vessels as navies in the region look to modernizing their fleet,” Lau said.
OPVs are in big demand in the Asia-Pacific region. According to a 20-year forecast by the U.S.-based naval analysis firm AMI International, “Global Naval Investment: The ‘Hi-Lo’ Mix,” the Asia-Pacific OPV market is expected to generate 55 vessels through 2030, making it the second-most potent OPV market after NATO, at 72.
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