Shipyard sale
October 16, 2009
The global financial crisis continues to have damaging consequences for German industry. The Abu Dhabi MAR Group is to buy 80 percent of three major ThyssenKrupp subsidiaries - Blohm + Voss Shipyards, Blohm + Voss Repair and Blohm + Voss Industries. A new joint venture will be created for the manufacture of frigates, corvettes and patrol boats, of which Abu Dhabi MAR and ThyssenKrupp will each own 50 percent.
This is the second major sale that ThyssenKrupp has been forced into in the past few weeks, following the sale of the majority of its Nordseewerke coastal shipyard to the wind energy company Siag Schaaf.
ThyssenKrupp shipyard director Christoph Atzpodien was upbeat about the sale. "The partnership with the Abu Dhabi MAR Group represents a solid foundation for the future of the shipyard," he told reporters. "It makes it possible for us to win new customers and guarantee long-term employment at the Hamburg location."
Divided responsibilities
According to ThyssenKrupp, Abu Dhabi MAR is one of the leading ship-builders in the Gulf Region, with 2,000 employees worldwide. The three Blohm + Voss companies Abu Dhabi MAR is buying into employ a total of around 1,700 people.
The division of responsibility in the partial takeover dictates that ThyssenKrupp will retain control of contracts with the German Navy and its NATO partners. Abu Dhabi MAR will oversee projects in the Middle East and North Africa, and will control the manufacture of mega-yachts and ship parts.
German shipbuilding is experiencing its worst crisis in decades. A dip in commissions and a rise in cancelled contracts have forced five shipyards into insolvency within a year. ThyssenKrupp has already halted the manufacture of several yachts and container ships.
Criticism from other giants
But other German industrial companies fear that the deal means ThyssenKrupp is effectively surrendering its civilian shipbuilding business.
"We see it as a big risk for their employees," the spokesman for IG Metall union in Hamburg, Eckard Scholz, said. "From now on, any shortfall in the demand for military ships won't be made up for with civilian contracts."
bk/Reuters/dpa
Editor: Sam Edmonds