ECONOMIC GROWTH AND DEMAND FOR SHIPS AT THE WORLD MARKET

The shipbuilding industry is one of the important export sectors in Croatia. Its operation under the conditions present in the world market imposes a need to understand the longterm
movements of demand for ships. This research has shown that the growth of the world economy determines over 90% of the sea transport growth, and the later roughly 95% of the ship deliveries. Hence, a long-term projection of the world economy growth is a starting point to project a sea transport, and finally demands and deliveries of given types of ships. Within the total demand for ships in the world market, it is necessary to determine a part of this demand to be satisfied by the shipbuilding yards in Croatia and consequently to determine basic starting point to formulate a strategy of the shipbuilding industry in our country.