Monday, January 10, 2022
IG Metall with little hope
Federal government points to owner in shipyard bankruptcy
In the end, nobody is surprised: the shipyards in the northeast are broke. There was no agreement on the financing of a largely finished ship. Now the search for a future for 2000 employees and a perspective for the shipbuilding locations begins.
The federal government assigns the blame for the bankruptcy of the shipbuilder MV Werften to the owner from Hong Kong. “Today is a very sad day for Germany as a shipyard location, especially Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania,” said the new coordinator of the federal government for the maritime economy and tourism, Claudia Müller. At a crucial point, the federal government and the owner Genting from Hong Kong did not meet. Now everything must be done to keep the knowledge and skills of the workforce in the country. Around 2000 employees are affected by the bankruptcy. In addition, there are around 300 employees in the Llyod shipyard in Bremerhaven, which is also part of Genting.
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig hopes that the bankruptcy is not the end for the employees. Hopefully an insolvency administrator will be appointed for the shipbuilder as soon as possible. With him it should be sounded out whether there are ways that shipbuilding “can continue even under the conditions of bankruptcy,” she said. This would significantly improve the situation. Together with Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck, perspectives for the maritime locations of Wismar, Rostock and Stralsund are to be developed. Cruise tourism was hit by the corona pandemic, but it has a future. It is therefore incomprehensible that Genting did not want to participate in a rescue and was not prepared to make a commitment to its own shipyards.
In the end, the MV-Werften did not succeed in securing the financing of the 75 percent finished and around 1.5 billion euro expensive new build of the cruise ship “Global Dream”. The federal and state governments tried everything to save MV, said Müller. The federal government was ready to commit itself with a volume of 600 million euros for the prefabricated construction of the cruise ship “Global I”. Because MV Werften had already been promised help from the Corona rescue fund WSF, the federal government wanted the owner to make an equity contribution of ten percent, i.e. 60 million euros. Müller said that 20 percent would actually have been common. “At this point there was no meeting between Genting and the Bund.”
Now it has to be a question of securing the shipyard location and well-paid jobs in structurally weak Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. “I see prospects for the shipyard location, for the industry that is there,” said the Rostock native Müller. There is great potential in the offshore industry and in the modernization of ships. She also said: “There are definitely interested parties, there are already negotiations for individual locations.” She named Stralsund as an example. The NDR reported that the city was already negotiating the sale of the shipyard with Genting and was planning to build a business park.
Everyone points to the other
The group of companies had previously filed for bankruptcy and informed the employees about it. The MV Werften spokesman said Habeck and Schwesig had tried in vain to find a way out. “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,” said Habeck. That is bitter news.
Just the day before, Genting President Colin Au and the managing director of the Werften Group, Carsten Haake, expressed incomprehension about the Federal Government’s approach. Au appealed to the responsible politicians to reconsider their negative attitude: “To drop the shipyards now would be the greatest economic mistake that the federal government could make,” Au had said. “Without Covid-19, we would never have asked the government for a euro.” Haake said he assumed that the federal government does not want to move at the moment and that Genting cannot move. Four proposals by Genting had been rejected by the federal government.
Black day – bitter news
In the wake of the MV shipyards on the Baltic Sea, the traditional Lloyd shipyard in Bremerhaven filed for bankruptcy. The Bremerhaven shipbuilding company is about 300 jobs. The Hamburg lawyer Per Hendrik Heerma was appointed as the preliminary insolvency administrator. He had also taken on this function at Elsflether Werft, which failed in 2019 with the renovation of the naval training ship “Gorch Fock”. The Bremerhaven steel and shipbuilding group Rönner has expressed an interest in the Lloyd shipyard. Sales talks, however, did not bring any result. There should also be foreign buyers interested in Lloyd.
The IG Metall union was appalled. “This Monday is a black day for shipbuilding in Germany,” said IG Metall boss Daniel Friedrich, who is responsible for the coast district, with a view to the locations in the northeast. At the same time, he was not very optimistic that a solution could be found soon. “The trust on all sides seems to have finally been used up.”
Friedrich called for insolvency administrators to be appointed, who, with the support of IG Metall, works councils and politics, wanted to keep jobs. The most important task in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is initially to organize the outstanding wages and salaries for the employees as quickly as possible. Even in the event of bankruptcy, it must be possible to complete the ship “Global 1” at the shipyard in Wismar. In addition, it is important to approach potential investors quickly.
One of the largest ships of its kind
The Economic Stabilization Fund (WSF) only gave the green light for 300 million euros in state aid last year. After that, MV Werften wanted to start restructuring. The shipyards in Wismar, Rostock and Stralsund have belonged to the listed gaming and cruise company Genting since 2016. The collapse of the cruise business in the Corona crisis had brought the parent company into financial difficulties.
MV Werften recently did everything in its power to complete “Global 1”. According to the spokesman, the ship, which is designed with 2500 cabins and space for 9500 passengers, is three quarters ready. An important milestone for the financing was only reached in December. However, due to the increasing concerns about the further development of cruise shipping in the pandemic, agreed payments were not made. With a length of 342 meters, a width of 46 meters and 20 decks, the “Global 1” is one of the largest ships of this type.