‘THE STATE OF THE ART OF THE GLOBAL YACHTING MARKET’ – BY CONFINDUSTRIA NAUTICA AND DELOITTE
The new study titled ‘The State of the Art of the Global Yachting Market,’ produced by the Italian Marine Industry Association (Confindustria Nautica) in collaboration with Deloitte, provides a detailed overview of the sector.
According to the report, the global new-build yachting market reached an impressive valuation of €33 billion during the industry boom in 2022. This figure represents an 11% year-over-year increase from 2021 and reflects a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10% since 2014. The study attributes this growth to a combination of factors, including steadily increasing prices and rising consumer demand for luxury yachts. Regionally, North America and Europe emerged as the largest markets, accounting for nearly 70% of the global share.
Sustainable yachting trends and innovations
The report highlights the increasing focus on Sustainable Yachting Trends, with a strong emphasis on eco-friendly technologies. Key innovations include the highly anticipated 2024 launch of the Sanlorenzo 50 Steel yacht, which features cutting-edge hydrogen fuel cell technology.
German shipyard Lürssen is also making significant strides with its 110-meter Cosmos project, further advancing hydrogen technology. Meanwhile, Vitters’ Project Zero represents a revolutionary step in solar-powered yachting, illustrating how sustainability is becoming a cornerstone of modern yacht design.
Market Consolidation and the Italian Advantage Confindustria Nautica and Deloitte also identified a growing trend of market consolidation, with over 400 mergers and acquisitions taking place between 2021 and 2023. Among the leading nations in yacht production, Italy stands out, generating €4.4 billion in 2022—an impressive 20% increase from the previous year. As the undisputed leader in this field, Italian shipyards continue to set benchmarks in quality, craftsmanship, and innovation, solidifying their position as the go-to Superyacht Builders Italy.
‘THE STATE OF YACHTING 2024 THROUGH 2023’ BY SUPERYACHT TIMES
Another study, ‘The State of Yachting 2024 through 2023’ by Superyacht Times, offers us an interesting Industry Overlook.
Market slower but still relatively strong
While superyacht sales over 30 m, both new and used, were definitely lower in 2023 than they were in the preceding year (let alone 2021), the sales of new yachts were still better than they were pre-Covid in 2019 and 2020.
203 new yacht sales over 2023 were recorded, which still puts the year in the top 10 of best sales years. Sales for 2023 come in 7th place after 2021, 2006-2008, 2022 and 2018. Used yacht sales slowed down faster than new sales in 2023, but with 296 yachts sold over 30 m, the used sales over 2023 still come in 6th place over the last 10 years (2014-2023) after 2021, 2022, 2020, 2018 and 2017.
So again, in a historical perspective, 2023 was not a bad year for the used yacht sales market. There are, however, notice signs of a weakening market as the amount and intensity of price reductions were way up over 2023.
The latest developments in eco-friendly superyachts
The year 2024 is an exciting one on the SustainableY achting front, as it has seen the launch and sea trials of the first Sanlorenzo 50 Steel yacht with hydrogen fuel cell technology. In addition, Lürssen is pushing ahead with its own version of that technology on the 110-m Cosmos project, which is now in the outfitting phase, for delivery in 2025.
In late 2023, the Dutch yard Vitters also began outfitting on its 69-m ketch Project Zero, which will have no combustion engine at all, as it will be fully powered by a mix of solar cells, heat recovery, batteries, recharging propulsion pods and, of course, wind.
What’s more, all the findings of that project’s team members are being shared with the industry so that all players can learn and move forward on a path to yachting with considerably less impact on the environment. And of course, we should not forget about the considerable efforts that the Polish catamaran experts of Sunreef have already put into the Eco versions of all their yacht models. Meanwhile, solar powered power catamaran builders Silent Yachts and Alva Yachts also continue their work, although Silent Yachts did suffer a setback in early 2024, pushing it into a restructuring phase.
Impact of attacks in the Red Sea
In November 2023, the Houthi rebels in Yemen started to attack ships in the Red Sea which – according to the Houthi’s – were in some way or another supporting Israel. Although the attacks are primarily aimed at merchant shipping and navy ships, yachts could potentially also become a target. A quick examination of the ship tracking data in Superyacht Times’ study shows that the number of superyachts transiting the narrow Bab-el-Mandeb Strait at the Southern end of the Red Sea in the period November 2023/mid-February 2024 was considerably lower than in the same period one year earlier.
23 individual yachts sailed through the strait in the latter period, against 31 one year prior: a reduction of 26%. The reduction was particularly stark after 1 January 2024, when we counted just 3 individual yachts, against 10 between 1 January and mid-February 2023. A coalition of navies from all over the world started patrolling the affected area by December 2023, but it remains to be seen whether this will instil enough confidence in superyacht owners to bring their yacht through the Red Sea again.
Alternatives and consequences
The alternative to a Red Sea transit is either a costly long voyage around the Cape of Good Hope, a pricey ride on a yacht transport vessel or heavy lift vessel which can be more closely guarded by naval vessels. As long as the Houthi attacks on shipping continue, they are bound to have a negative impact on the number of yachts travelling from the Mediterranean to Dubai, the Seychelles, Maldives and further into Asia.
We expect the development of the superyacht tourism infrastructure on the Saudi Red Sea coast to remain relatively unaffected as that is a bit further removed from the main conflict area and visiting yachts from the Mediterranean only need to transit the Suez Canal. By the way, it seems that not all superyacht owners are deterred by the Houthi attacks: the 136-m Lürssen Flying Fox transited the Bab-el-Mandeb on its way to Dubai in February 2024.
The Russian situation
As the Superyacht Times’ report is being published, the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine has already been going on for over 2 years. Even though the superyacht market has carried on after the imposition of sanctions on Russian owners, we cannot deny that the sanctions still have an impact.
Russian buyers remain largely absent from the newbuild market, which has consequences on the market in particular for large newbuilds. Also, a limited number of large yachts – both newbuilds and operating yachts – remain marooned in ports, awaiting a resolution which will allow them to move on. During 2023, a number of large newbuilds were resold to other clients and finally delivered; contrary to many popular media reports, only a very small number of yachts has actually been seized by governments (Amadea in the United States and Alfa Nero in Antigua and Barbuda come to mind). The superyacht industry will likely have to keep dealing with the fallout from sanctions on Russian owners for many years to come.
We have tried to identify the main topics covered by the two studies, and the following is a full numerical review of: superyacht sales; the fleet; construction book; the market; the builders; refit and conversion market; the Owners.
Superyacht sales
Superyacht sales of both new and used yachts over 30 m declined in 2023 compared to 2022, but both were still above pre-Covid levels. New yacht sales declined from 245 yachts to 203 yachts, while used yacht sales decreased from 403 sales to 296. New yacht sales between 30 and 50 m were considerably lower, while sales in the prestigious top segment over 80 m also went down by over a third. Meanwhile, new yacht sales between 50 and 80 m were affected a bit less, declining by 20%.
The fleet
The global fleet over 30 m length consisted of 5,787 superyachts in operation at the start of 2024. There are also around 109 superyachts out of service, while about 213 superyachts have been completely lost since 1945. 85% of the global fleet consists of motor yachts and 15% of sailing yachts.
In 2023, 202 superyachts were completed: this is quite an improvement on 2022, when 170 yachts were completed. In fact, 202 is the highest number of completions that has been noted since 2010. Superyacht shipyards and their supplier networks ramped up production following the order boom of 2021 and 2022, so – following the productive year 2023 – we expect another good year in 2024, with around 205 completions.
Construction book
At the start of 2024, there were 695 superyachts in the construction book, 6% more than in the preceding year when we counted 668 superyachts. The number of yachts actively in-build increased by 26 units to 658, while the number of on hold projects deemed worthy of inclusion in the construction book increased by 1 yacht, to 37. Despite that new yacht sales and new yacht completions were in balance, the construction book still grew as the amount of speculation new-builds offered for sale increased.
The market
Out of the 695 superyachts in the construction book, 171 are available for sale, which represents 25% of the construction book: a marked increase from the preceding year’s 20%, and a reversal of the declining trend we saw during 2021 and 2022.
Out of the 171 available superyachts, 146 are being built on speculation and 25 are offered for sale by their owners. Out of the 5,787 superyachts in the fleet 1,008 are available for sale, which represents 17% of the total fleet, an unchanged share compared to the previous year.
The number of new superyacht sales slowed down by 17% in 2023. Sales of new-builds which were started on speculation went down by 18%, while sales of new-build projects started for the client declined far less, by about 12%. Builders started more speculative new-build projects during 2023 than in the preceding year, leading to an increase in availability of speculation new-builds. New yacht sales dropped across the board, with the segment over 80 m showing the strongest decrease in percentage terms as they went down by 40% from 10 to 6 sales.
Meanwhile the segment between 30 and 40 m dropped the most in number of yachts as sales dropped by 23 yachts to 108. Used superyacht sales decreased by 27% in 2023 to 296. The average volume of used yachts sold increased from 402 Gross Tonnes (GT) in 2022 to 510GT in 2023. Average final asking prices per GT for sold used yachts Increased by 13%, from €27,540 per GT in 2022 to €31,020 per GT in 2023, the 3rd year in a row that this price is rising.
The builders
In the last 10 years, 296 shipyards have delivered one or more superyachts or are currently building a superyacht. Of these 296 shipyards, 237 are still active today and out of these, 138 shipyards are currently building one or more superyachts. 23% of the shipyards are based in Turkey, even though they have only built an average of 2.5 yachts per shipyard over the past 10 years. In comparison, also 23% of the shipyards are based in Italy and they have built on average 14 yachts per shipyard in the past 10 years.
British shipyards are the second most productive, with an average output of 13.4 yachts per yard during the last 10 years. A total of 34 shipyards are currently in the process of building their first superyacht. Very large yachts are only built by a select few shipyards. Currently, there are only 20 yards building yachts over 80 m and just 11 shipyards are building yachts with a volume of more than 3,000 GT.
Refit and Conversion market
There are on average around 1,500 refit yard visits per year by yachts over 30 m worldwide. US yards are the most popular refit destinations, having attracted 23% of all recorded yard visits in 2023. The refit yard visits in the United States were handled by 21 different shipyard facilities. Italian yards handled 21% of the refit yard visits, but did this with 34 different facilities, making it the country with the most refit facilities. Spain and France handled the highest number of large yachts over 60 m, while the United States were leading in both the 30-40 m and 40-60 m category, although the Italians were very close behind in the latter segment.
There are around 184 active yachts over 30 m in the world which were converted from other vessel types. Collectively, they form around 3% of the world’s fleet and three to seven conversion yachts are added to the fleet every year.
The Owners
Clients from the United States own the largest share of superyachts over 40 m, at 23% of the total fleet. Russian owners come in second, with 8% of the fleet, followed by Greece and Turkey with 6% each. The United Kingdom and Italy close out the list of top owning countries with 5% each.
Clients from the United States have purchased the most new-build yachts over 40 m in the past 10 years, having acquired 22% of all these yachts, followed closely by clients from Russia, who come in at 11%. Purely looking at the sold yachts over 40 m under construction today, 29% are being built for clients from the United States and 7% for Russian clients, down from 13% two years ago. Brazilian buyers have re-entered the ranks of top-new-build buyers, while Chinese buyers left. Italian and Israeli buyers are now jointly in 3rd position when it comes to owners of projects currently in build, holding a share of 5% each.
