22 AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2019 | International Boat Industry ibinews.com
Markets & Regions
EUROPE | ROUND-UP
Day trips, aluminium boats,
outboards engines and bigger boats
are the four main trends in Finland.
“The range of aluminium and hybrid
hull boats available on the market is
in response to consumer demand,”
Pajusolo told IBI. “The average size of
boat keeps getting bigger and outboards
are now seen on a wider range of boats.
Consumers are busy and interest in
fast day trips is driving the market for
day cruisers and other fast boats. At the
same time, the market for large yachts in
Finland is doing well, albeit the numbers
are naturally much smaller.”
REAL GDP GROWTH (2018) 1.7%
REAL GDP GROWTH (2019 est) 1.2%
NUMBER OF ADULTS 49.5 MILLION
NUMBER $ MILLIONAIRES 2,15 MILLION
BOAT PARK 510,000
CONSUMER CONFIDENCE
(Change in index points Jun/Jul) +2.0
NEW CAR SALES
(Change Jan-Jun ‘18/19) -1.8%FRANCE
Complete Climate Solutions: Heating, Cooling & Roofs
W Yves Lyon-Caen, head of
French industry federation FINS Finnboat CEO Jarkko PajusaloThe average
size of boat
keeps getting bigger and
outboards are now seen on
a wider range of boatsThe health of the large yacht market
was particularly evident at this year’s
Helsinki Boat Afloat show, where the
average size of motoryacht on display is
getting bigger each year.
The weak spot in Finland, says
Pajusalo, is still the sailing boat market
with less than 20 new boats registered
annually. “The fleet in Finland is ageing
and clearly there’s a need for more
modern sailing boats,” he says. “We’re
seeing an increase in imports of second-
hand boats, but during 2019 we’ve also
seen some positive signs of new sailing
boat sales in Finland.”
Meanwhile, the charter business in
Finland has not enjoyed the same robust
growth as in other markets. “Finland
has globally unique archipelagos and
lake districts, so the potential is there,
but we need to develop supply and
services to cater for the demand during
the European peak season, which is in
August,” Pajusalo explains. “Finnish
schools start in mid-August, which
makes it difficult to get seasonal help
at marinas. This is probably the biggestI
t’s taken a full decade
for the French boating
industry to recover its
pre-crisis turnover, but the
wait was worth it. “We are
back to the level of 2008,
with a total turnover of
€4.8bn,” said Yves Lyon-Caen,
president of French nautical
industries federation FIN, late
last year.
According to FIN’s latest figures,
turnover for the 12 months ended
August 31, 2017 grew by 5%. Official
figures for the 2018 financial year
weren’t released in time for this report,
but the French boating industry hopes
to grow turnover another 8% to €5.2bn.
FIN’s latest data also reveals that
the production of series boats reached
a value of €1.09bn in 2017 with 52,989
units produced. In terms of turnover,
60.6% of these units built in Francehurdle holding back the growth of
marinas and especially charter business.”
The industry mood in Finland is said
to be cautiously positive with around
55% of Finnboat member companies
expecting turnover in 2019 to be better
than 2018. However, this is down from
61% a year ago, notes Pajusalo. “Clearly
the cooling down of the economy
is changing the sentiment to more
cautious,” he says. “Over 70% of Finnish
boats are exported, so the biggest
challenges are in the global economy
with trade wars causing too much
uncertainty in the market.” were live-aboard sailing
yachts, and 33.5% live-
aboard motorboats.
Around 27% of the sailboats
were monohulls from
12m-15m, while multihulls
represented more than 40% of the
units produced. On the motor side, more
than 67% were between 6m-9m.
In summary, the double-digit
increase in the overall turnover of
French production is mainly down to the
increase in sales of 6m-12m motorboats
and the booming multihull sector.
Exports dominate the financials, with
sales peaking at €816.4m (compared to
€270m of sales in France). In 10 years, the
share of these exports has increased from
62% to 75.1%. Of that figure, 35.7% went
to EU countries and 39.4% went mainly