(ideas)

They should all have logos. And there could be random adverts for them on ports and stations. (And for ship manufacturers and other businesses too)

Existing Ship Manufacturers

• ALBR Corp (SolFed-Independent) [ALBR] - Main focus are aerodynamic, atmosphere optimized ships, mostly hulls. Have few models, that are nicely polished and mature designs. They are SolFed aligned, even if on paper they are independent. They license or use off the shelf parts extensively.
• Auronox (Independent) - Primarily focuses on ship hull design, but is known to license their highly-efficient aerospike drives to other shipbuilders. Their equipment is characterized by being very efficient, power-hungry, and expensive. Auronox ships typically use first-party parts, which has gained them a reputation for being high-performance but extremely expensive to repair.
• OPLI Barnards Inc. (SolFed) [OPLI] - Their ships are mostly mediocre, easy to maintain, but they manufacture widely. Relatively cheap and easily found in SolFed Space. Rare and disliked in CIW. They put a special emphasis on their Couriers, but they produce freighters, transports, shuttles and utility crafts as well.
• Haber Corporation - Spacecraft Manufacturing Division [Haber, HCSMD] - The shipyard arm of the all-encompassing and dystopic Haber Corp. Their ships are poor quality and typically use outdated technology, but they are at least cheap. They will be expensive on the long run though, because of high maintenance needs, and the user-unfriendly design that makes that maintenance needlessly hard. They embrace subscription based functionality even for seemingly basic features, but they are incompetent enough that their DRM solutions are easily circumvented.
• OKB Kaluri (CIW) - Their origin is being the underdog. They produce good quality, not the bleeding edge tech, but their ships are easy to operate and fly. They have a wide palette, with an emphasis on cargo ships and utility craft. Performance is usually a bit above mediocre, but won’t excel. But their ships are rugged and easy to maintain even in the field, and well liked by their owners. Even if their tech isn’t bleeding edge, they are very keen on design refinement and polish. They are in an eternal play if industrial espionage dance with Mandarava-Csepel, almost doing for the sport if it.
• Mandarava-Csepel (SolFed) [MCS]- The most important shipmaker of SolFed, with deep-rooted ties between them and the government. Their tech is considered the most advanced, and highest quality and performance, with prices mirroring that. Their ships can be maintenance hungry, and less tinker friendly. They are very keen on industrial epsionage, especially against OKB Kaluri (long-time running rivalry). Their palette is relatively wide, with lots of military craft produced for the SolFed Navy.
• Ivaldi-Borthwick Aerospace Cooperative (CIW) - [IBAC], Ivaldi-Borthwick for short. Named after a dwarf and a scottish river. Industrious, down-to-earth manufacturer specializing in workhorse transports, shuttles and passenger transports. Mostly on the larger side. Their products are rugged, very simple, relatively cheap. Based in 1 Orionis.
• Arrighi Precision Mechanics (independent) [Arrighi] for short**.** (Arrighi was an italian scribe who developed a typeface in the 16th century). Narrower palette luxury and exploration ship manufacturer. Produces luxury passenger cabins. (Bit like how Lamborghini produces tractors and luxury sport cars). Naming scheme is typograhy based.
• Leirvik Orbital Shipworks (CIW) [LOS] Producing workhorse ships, mostly on the larger side. Dependable, but maintenance hungry, advanced ships.
• Kuratsukuri-Tori Royal Shipyards (Tolan) [KTRS] Lower tech, but really dependable and sophisticated ships exclusive to Tolan space. They do venture outside their territories, but don’t sell to outsiders. Tolan citizens can’t buy them either, but are essentially renting. Their maps are limited to their own space, and really hard to retrofit with off the shelf equipment due to a quite different computer architecture. So obtaining such a ship could be a potential narrative adventure for the player.
  • Note:

Equipment Manufacturers

• Nadir Optical [Nadir] - we already have it as a planetary scanner manufacturer. Could be a sensor manufacturer, since the name is a play on the Zenith camera company of yore (Russian)
• Rochefort-Blinkenlicht Computing [RBC] - sensor and computer manufacturer (analyzers, autopilots, etc) Could be on the expensive, and higher quality side. The company was formed on the terraformed world Rochefort in the Regula Benedicti system (Trappist-1).
• JCN Industries [JCN] - play on the IBM - HAL(9000) wordplay from 2001
• Muuga Heavy Industries [Muuga, MHI] - Port in Estonia. CIW company, subsidiary of Kaluri (also estonian origin) Could manufacture engines and reactors, scoops for example.
• Duna Maschinenwerke [Duna MW] - Mandarave-Csepel subsidiary. The Danube (Donau, Duna) is an important river in Europe, springing from Germany and flowing through quite a few countries. Danubius is its latin name. (Csepel is a mayor island on the Danube, with significant industrial history - also it was the name of a car and motorcycle factory) RCS thrusters, atmospheric shielding, ballistic/railgun weapons, hull armor, etc.
• Seversk Arbetares Kombinat [SAK / Seversk a.k.] - arbetares: workers’, kombinat: industrial group - A SolFed quasi-communist workers corporation originating from the barren planet of Seversk in the Noril system. Fuel scoops, industrial/mining equipment, hull reinforcements, cabin-slot equipment, ballistic weapons?