The European space sector experienced a 3% decline in 2018, according to figures presented to a group of journalists on Thursday 13 June by Eurospace, the organisation representing key players in the European space industry. For the speakers, the EU lacks a real strategic vision in which European preference would prevail.
After 15 years of increased sales, the European space sector is facing a slowdown in 2018, notes the organisation, which noted a dry loss of €500 million for the European commercial satellite sector, which has stabilised at around €2 billion.
The decline in European commercial and export markets was only partially offset by the growth of the European institutional market, the main market for the European space industry, explains the organisation.
"This is a major turnaround, which we have never seen before", explains Pierre Lionnet, research director at ASD-Eurospace. "Today, this is a source of concern for the future", he added.
Europe is also threatened in the launcher sector. "Space X (a private American player in the launch sector), has shut down Russian launchers, which are the cheapest on the market, and is now endangering Arianespace", explained Mr Lionnet. The expert recalled that Space X had taken between 3 to 4 orders from Arianespace over a year, Arianespace which has an average order book of about 15 launches per year. "This is huge", he continues, adding that each loss of customer means a loss of €150 million in revenue.
The problem, according to the organisation, is the lack of strategic vision of the Member States, which all see the space market "as a market like any other", with the exception of France. However, positions are starting to move, notes Lucas Buthion, head of Eurospace' s Brussels office.
The latter makes one observation: the principle of European preference is not "set in stone", but remains "a practice", by definition non-binding. In addition, the Union suffers from a very underdeveloped military space sector compared to its direct international competitors.
Although Europe certainly has the second largest aggregate budget in the space sector in the world (about 9 billion dollars against 44 billion euros for the United States), it has fallen in terms of activity to fourth place behind China and Russia.
To consult the figures: https://bit.ly/2F9Ybfn (Original version in French by Martin Molko, intern and Pascal Hansens)