Habeck on Monday in Wismar
IG Metall demands bridging aid for MV shipyards
2/13/2022 8:34 am
The insolvency administrator of MV Werften recently dampened hopes that the construction of cruise ships would guarantee secure jobs. There are alternatives – but they take time. The employees are hoping for help from the state for the transition.
In view of the difficult negotiations to save the MV shipyards, IG Metall is demanding state bridging aid. The federal and state governments are required when it comes to financing projects at the shipyards. “Neither the further construction of Global 1 nor the construction of platforms for the offshore industry will work without state guarantees and loans,” said the district manager of IG Metall Coast, Daniel Friedrich, before the visit of Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck in Wismar, which was planned for Monday.
The Hanseatic city is one of three shipyard locations on the Baltic Sea whose future is in acute jeopardy after the insolvency of MV Werften, which belongs to the Asian Genting group. The Global 1, which would be one of the world’s largest cruise ships with space for 9,500 passengers, is waiting for completion in the dock in Wismar. Since the parent company, as the client, also submitted an application for processing in mid-January, the funds for completion are lacking. We’re talking about 600 million euros. The total construction costs were given as 1.5 billion euros.
The trigger for the momentous crisis is the corona pandemic, as a result of which cruise tourism, one of Genting Hong Kong’s main sources of income, came to a standstill worldwide. Because Genting’s liquidity was no longer sufficient, the federal and state governments initially jumped in with loans and guarantees, but pulled the emergency brake at the beginning of this year.
Insolvency administrator dampens hopes
Since then, insolvency administrator Christoph Morgen has been looking for solvent buyers for the ship and for investors for new projects. However, it was only on Friday at a rally of shipyard workers in Rostock-Warnemünde that he dampened hopes of quick follow-up orders that would secure employment. “There is great interest in building offshore platforms here in the future,” he said. However, given the advance planning for such projects, construction is not expected to begin until the end of 2023 at the earliest.
According to trade unionist Friedrich, the expressions of interest give hope that the locations will be retained and that the maritime industry will also have a future in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. “What has been missing so far, however, are concrete commitments for the employees. We will measure every investor against their industrial concept and their personnel planning,” he announced.
A total of almost 2,000 shipbuilders are facing an uncertain future. The move to a transfer company is intended to gain time. “We still have highly qualified employees at the locations. The common goal of everyone in the country must be to secure this know-how in the long term. Without the people, the best locations are worth nothing,” warned Friedrich. The federal and state governments would have to use an aid program to create change and keep people in the industry. “We expect an industrial and structural policy approach that focuses on people. We hope to get clear statements on this from Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck during his visit to Wismar on Monday,” Friedrich made clear.
The state’s chambers of industry and commerce had also warned against a migration of skilled workers to other sectors and other federal states. This puts the continued existence of the maritime economy in acute danger, it said. The branch is regarded as the industrial backbone in structurally weak Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, which has the lowest wage level in a comparison of the federal states.