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MV Werften and Lloyd-Werft Bremerhaven apply for bankruptcy

2022-01-10T16:03:48.016Z


MV Werften and Lloyd-Werft Bremerhaven apply for bankruptcy Created: 01/10/2022Updated: 01/10/2022, 4:55 PM The 140-meter-long luxury yacht “Solaris” is moored in a dock at the Lloyd shipyard in Bremerhaven. © Sina Schuldt / dpa / picture archive Big blow for the German shipbuilding industry: On Monday the MV Werften in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania with 1900 employees and the Bremerhaven-based


MV Werften and Lloyd-Werft Bremerhaven apply for bankruptcy

Created: 01/10/2022Updated: 01/10/2022, 4:55 PM

The 140-meter-long luxury yacht “Solaris” is moored in a dock at the Lloyd shipyard in Bremerhaven.

© Sina Schuldt / dpa / picture archive

Big blow for the German shipbuilding industry: On Monday the MV Werften in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania with 1900 employees and the Bremerhaven-based Lloyd shipyard with 300 employees file for bankruptcy.

Both belong to the Asian Genting group, which is in trouble.

Wismar - Bad news for German shipbuilding at the beginning of the year: On Monday, MV Werften in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Bremerhaven's Lloyd-Werft filed for bankruptcy. Both companies belong to the conglomerate Genting Hong Kong, which is in trouble. Trading in Genting shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange was suspended last Friday and has not resumed since then. Genting's cruise line has got into trouble because of the corona pandemic.

At MV Werften there are around 1900 employees, at the Bremerhaven shipbuilding company around 300 jobs. The Hamburg attorney Per Hendrik Heerma was appointed temporary insolvency administrator for the Lloyd shipyard. He had also taken on this function at Elsflether Werft, which failed in 2019 with the renovation of the naval training ship “Gorch Fock”. No insolvency administrator has been named for MV Werften, said a spokesman for the Schwerin District Court.

MV Werften did not succeed in securing the financing of the 75 percent completed and around 1.5 billion euro expensive new build of the cruise ship "Global Dream" for up to 10,000 passengers. Negotiations between Genting and the shipyard with the federal and state governments failed. State and federal politicians blame Genting for this: The group was not ready to contribute a share of 60 million euros to the rescue package, it has been said for days.

The federal government was therefore prepared to give another 300 million euros from the economic stabilization fund that had already been granted. A further 78 million euros were available from the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania - on the condition that Genting and the federal government reach an agreement and that MV Werften has the prospect of a continuation. However, the group had shown no interest in realigning itself away from cruise ships. Genting took over the shipyards in 2016 with the sole aim of building cruise ships, the President of Genting Hong Kong, Colin Au, told the German press agency at the weekend. More than two billion euros have been invested.

When asked by the German Press Agency in Berlin, Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) said: “As the federal government, we have pulled out all the stops to avoid the bankruptcy of MV Werften and thus save jobs. However, the owners have turned down our offer of help; the filing of bankruptcy is the result. "

IG Metall spoke of a "black day" for shipbuilding in Germany after the bankruptcy applications. The district manager of the IG Metall coast, Daniel Friedrich, emphasized: “We are appalled that it had to come to this.” The fact that the negotiations did not lead to a solution is sobering. “The trust on all sides seems to have finally been used up.” Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig, Minister of Economics Reinhard Meyer and Minister of Finance Heiko Geue (all SPD) wanted to speak at a press conference after a meeting of the state finance committee in the early evening.

The IG Metall demands the prefabricated building of the "Global Dream" in the bankruptcy.

In addition, it is important to approach potential investors quickly and realign the shipyards.

In Bremerhaven and Stralsund there were already interested parties before the bankruptcy.

The union sees federal and state politics still being challenged.

“In this difficult situation, it must be possible to keep the highly qualified employees with their good, collectively agreed working conditions at the locations,” says Friedrich.

Only with people could the shipyards be secured as industrial cores for the respective regions.

Shipbuilding is considered to be the industrial backbone of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

For the Association for Shipbuilding and Marine Technology (VSM) it is now crucial to enable the four locations on the Baltic Sea and in Bremerhaven to be retained as part of a change of ownership.

The German shipbuilding industry could not afford a further loss of substance of this magnitude, announced the association in Hamburg.

The maritime industry is facing a major upheaval, the entire fleet must be converted to climate neutrality.

Furthermore, the offshore industry and the infrastructure for sustainable fuels would have to be greatly expanded.

"This will require extensive production capacities in the maritime industry in the coming years," it said.

Against this background, bankruptcy could also prove to be an opportunity, as the way for other market segments and business models is now free.

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The Genting Group took over the shipyards in 2016 in order to have cruise ships built there for their own shipping companies.

After the corona-related collapse of the cruise market in early 2020, Genting got into financial difficulties and the trend reversal expected for 2021 did not materialize.

Colin Au emphasized that the cruise industry has started again in Asia and is working profitably.

But from negotiating circles at the federal and state levels, it was heard that this opinion was hardly shared there.

dpa

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-01-10

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