Asia takes aim at Europe in luxury yacht building

By Doug Young

KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan (Reuters) - Fast-moving Asia is vying for a bigger share of the multi-billion-dollar luxury ship market serving the rich and famous.

Led by Taiwan and increasingly China, Asia has narrowed the gap with the West in recent years, though it still lags Europe in the race for a market where individual yachts can sell for tens of millions of dollars.

Asian yacht-builders offer prices that average about a third less for Taiwan and up to half as much for China compared to boats built in the West.

But low prices sometimes come with lower quality, especially from China, and less individuality, say industry watchers.

"Taiwan is already a good market with experience with building yachts and China could be the future one," said Francesco Frediani, vice president of sales at Italian luxury yacht maker Riva Yacht, which counts actors Nicholas Cage and Sophia Loren among its clients.

"They are growing their expertise at the moment but in terms of handling boat-related problems, Europe still owns the expertise," he said.

Taiwan and China are Asia's two current leaders, with about 100 orders on the books this year -- three-quarters of those for Taiwan -- for yachts of 80 feet or longer, according to industry tracker ShowBoats International. The figure was up sharply from 2005, when the pair had about 60 orders combined.

While growing, those numbers still trail well behind Italy, the world's leader with more than 400 orders on the books alone this year, and the United States, with more than 100.