Fincantieri Participates To DIMDEX 2012, Doha International Maritime Defence Exhibition

In the military field, Fincantieri is a reference operator worldwide offering a wide range of ship types including surface vessels, submarines and special ships. In Italy the company is the reference partner of the Italian Navy, the Coastguards and other public bodies for the design, the construction and logistic support of the surface fleet, main auxiliary vessels and submarines.
Fincantieri follows the ships built by the company throughout their working lives by planning maintenance work and execution of ordinary, extraordinary work or refitting either at Fincantieri’s yards or at the customer’s facility. The customer is provided with full logistical support including crew training, technical assistance and supply of spare parts.
Technology, innovation and customization are the cornerstones of working in the military field. There has now been an upturn in this sector and the time and resources Fincantieri has invested in marketing and design work have been successful in terms of orders with naval work making up approximately 50% of the Group’s activities compared to 20% previously. The company’s success is also due to the fact that it offers both well proven designs and new concept projects in which many foreign Navies (India, Iraq, Turkey, UAE, USA) have expressed interest.

In general many Navies need to renew their fleets and accordingly there are signs of recovery especially in nations which are unable to meet their needs given the absence or unsuitability of the local shipbuilding industry.

This is why Fincantieri has doubled its efforts putting in bids for numerous tenders some of which have already been highly successful – as in Algeria, that has ordered a Landing and Logistical Support Vessel – whilst others have still to be adjudicated (Brazil), in order to increase its share of the international market, thereby carrying on the company’s great tradition in this sector.
However there are still difficulties in executing the orders as budget constraints in defence spending often lead to expenditure reviews, delays and postponements both for new national and foreign programmes.
This means it is necessary to monitor alternative fields of work and improve the competences available by gaining orders in contiguous sectors. In this respect Fincantieri recently gained important orders for a series of multi-purpose tug, supply and support vessels for offshore platforms for German and Italian owners and a ship to transport nuclear fuel and radioactive waste from dismantling Russian submarines ordered on the back of agreements between G8 nations.

Since the beginning of 2009, the group has also been working in the USA through its subsidiary, Fincantieri Marine Group (FMG). Through FMG Fincantieri has consolidated its strategy to internationalize its military business, thereby enabling the company to enter the most important defence sector worldwide, the USA, which alone develops 60% of the total value of military orders. Fincantieri, the preferred supplier of the US marines and Coast Guard, has put in bids for important military orders. At the end of 2010 Fincantieri, in partnership with Lockheed Martin, gained a 4-billion-dollar contract for the construction at the Group’s US shipyards of a further 10 Littoral Combat Ships in addition to the two vessels which have already been built.
Fincantieri and a team including also General Electric Marine has put in bids to build the new fleet of hovercraft for the US Navy (80 units for a total value of 4 billion dollars) within the framework of the Sea Base-to-Shore Connector (SSC) program to be assigned by June 2012.