Ever larger ships are built, but building them is less profitable. Why do not shipyards earn more from building larger ships?

Larger ships often included a bigger hull to be able to carry more cargo. In this way the transportation costs per product could be lowered. Building a larger hull, however, is relatively simple to do. In short, it mainly concerns welding numerous additional meters of steel plates. The parts of a ship that were much more complicated to build, such as the engine room or the operating systems, did not grow larger or more complicated. Because of the existing knowledge the Dutch shipbuilding industry was ahead when it came to more complex parts, but the welding of the hull could often also be done elsewhere. To make things worse, Dutch shipbuilders also did not invest enough in technologies to accomplish production with fewer workers. Given the high Dutch wages, welding grew increasingly more expensive. Competing with shipyards in low-wage countries therefore became much more difficult.