Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Although German shipyards delivered fewer vessels in 2016 than in the previous year

it was still a good year because the yards were able to win quite a number of orders

that secure their utilization over the medium term. By Thomas Wägener
While the big seagoing cargo ships are still being built on Asian shipyards the main skills of German shipbuilders are[ds_preview] in the construction of specialized vessels. These are mainly mega yachts, cruise ships or river cruisers and navy ships of every kind. Moreover, German shipbuilders are competent in building RoRo or RoPax ships and smaller vessels like rescue boats, work boats or tugs.

The mega yacht segment is impacted by the crises in the global shipping sector, because normally affluent individuals order these ships. This is why a lot of mega yachts have been ordered during recent years. Naval ships is another market not affected by the crisis. The German maritime industry is famous also in this category. In recent years, several countries have ordered naval ships including submarines with ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) in Kiel. Four frigates of the new type F125 for the German navy are currently being built in Hamburg at the Blohm + Voss site. The first one, called »Baden-Würtemberg« (F 222) is scheduled to be delivered this year, the three others are will follow until next year. Blohm + Voss has been taken over by Lürssen in Oktober 2016. With the acqusition of the traditional Hamburg-beased shipyard Lürssen wants to strengthen its naval newbuild activities. But the yard is also planned as a base for repairs and refits of yachts, naval, and commercial ships.

In the past few years the Asian shipyards which normally have most competences in the construction of merchant ships, also tried to gain a foothold in building passenger ship – with moderate success, as the example AIDA has shown. The Asians must have realized that the construction of a passenger ship cannot be as simple as a cargo vessel. As a result, the deliveries of the two ships of the AIDAprima class built by Japanese shipyard Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has been delayed for several months. This is probably one of the reasons why the German cruise company returned to Meyer Werft. Of course, that is a good sign for the German shipbuilding market.

The company’s orderbook is full. »Nearly all of the main cruise companies belong to our customers«, the shipyard said in a press release. At its three locations in Papenburg, Rostock-Warnemünde and Turku in Finland the group will build around 20 vessels until 2023, eleven of them will be constructed in Papenburg. This means that the shipyard group will be fully utilized for the coming years.

The takeover of the former Nordic Yards by the Hong Kong-based Genting Group is also good news for the German shipbuilding industry. The new company called MV Werften with shipyard locations in Wismar, Rostock-Warnemünde and Stralsund was founded in the first half of 2016. In 2015, the Genting Group had already bought Lloyd Werft in Bremerhaven. The Group have announced that they intend to build several seagoing cruise ships and river cruisers in all of their new locations in Germany in the near future. In Wismar they have already started with the construction of two river cruise vessels for Crystal River Cruises, a subsidiary of the Genting Group, has already started in Wismar. These newbuildings are scheduled for delivery this year. Furthermore, in January the steel cutting of the two sister ships took place in Wismar. This duo is destined to be delivered in 2018. Upon the takeover, the company announced the intention to build a minimum of two big vessels and one smaller unit per year. In November 2016, MV Werften published their schedule for the following five years. In addition to the four river cruisers three exploration yachts of the Endeavor Class with 20,000 gt each have been ordered by Crystal Yacht Cruises. The deliveries are scheduled for 2019, 2020 and 2021. Furthermore, two mega cruise ships of the Global Class for Star Cruises are to be handed over in 2020 and 2021. The size of the vessels is more than 200,000 gt each.

In December 2016, Fassmer announced a contract for building three vessels for the German police. They will be fitted out with helicopter platforms. According to the shipyard the »Super Puma«, the biggest helicopter of the German police forces, will be able to land there. In the same month, the shipyard located in Berne on the river Weser received an order from the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency of Germany (BSH) to build a survey and research vessel. According to the shipyard the new »Atair« will be the world’s first authority vessel with gas propulsion and the largest ship of the BSH fleet with 74m in length. It will replace the former »Atair« in 2020. The Hamburg Port Authority also contracted Fassmer to build a new modern fire fighting vessel. The ship of 43.5m is designed for operations in the port of Hamburg. This summer Fugro will get its new offshore survey vessel named »Fugro Venturer«from Fassmer. Furthermore, this year the deliveries of three rescue boats of the famous 9.5/10.1m class for the German Maritime Search and Rescue Association (DGzRS) are planned. Also scheduled for the coming years are three other rescue vessels for the same customer, two with a length of 20m and one ship of 27.90m which is a sister to the »Berlin« that has been delivered in December last year.Tamsen Maritim from Rostock is also focused on building rescue boats. This year and in 2018 the delivery of one rescue boat each is on the list.

Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft (FSG) announced a number of newbuildings for the coming years. This year, DFDS is awaiting two RoRo vessels, each with a length of 209.79m. In May 2016 the shipyard has entered into orders for building two further RoRo vessels with the Siem Group. The Siem Group took over FSG in November 2014 and will charter out the vessels long term in a bareboat charter to DFDS. The design of the vessels has been developed by FSG and successfully delivered to several customers. The 209,6m ships will have a capacity of 4.076 lane metres for up to 262 trailers of 14m length. They will be finalized in May and September 2017 respectively. In short succession FSG entered into a shipbuilding contract with a subsidiary of Siem Group for the construction of two RoRo vessels with a length of 209.79m overall and 4,100 lane meters of cargo capacity. The vessels will be named »Meleq« and »Fadiq« and be operated by Alternative Tasimacilik, the shipping arm of Ekol Logistik from Istanbul, Turkey, under a bareboat charter deal with purchase obligation. The deliveries are planned for 2017 and 2018. Also in May, the Irish Continental Group (ICG) placed an order with FSG to build a RoPax ferry. The 194.80 m long and 31.6 m wide ship has a cargo capacity of 2,800 lane meters and an additional dedicated car deck for 300 cars. It will be equipped with 435 passenger cabins and a number of restaurants, bars and lounges on four decks, with a total capacity of 1,900 passengers and crew. The delivery is scheduled for May 2018.

The first vessel built by Pella Sietas is to be delivered this March. It is a passenger ferry for the Hamburg-based company HADAG that will be employed in the port of Hamburg. It has a capacity for 400 passengers. The second project in the orderbook of Pella Sietas is a trailing suction hopper dredger for the German Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration (WSV). The delivery is planned for December 2018.

So, the outlook for the German shipbuilding industry in future are very promising. But the status quo is not so pleasing, because last year the German shipyards have delivered less vessels than in the years before.

In spring, Meyer Werft in Papenburg handed over the »Ovation of the Seas« to Royal Caribbean International, to be followed by »Genting Dream« to Dream Cruises in autumn. Neptun Werft in Rostock-Warnemünde, which belongs to the Meyer Group, completed six river cruise ships for Viking River Cruises and Meyer Turku launched »Mein Schiff 5« to TUI Cruises.

Lürssen delivered the 156m mega yacht »Dilbar« and a coast guard vessel. Abeking & Rasmussen also delivered two vessels, the mega yacht »Cloudbreak« and the Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull (SWATH) »Al Makar«. In addition, in mid January 2017 the yard reported the launch of the mega yacht »Aviva«. According to the company, it is the biggest yacht Abeking & Rasmussen has ever built in its more than 100 years history at 98m in length.

FSG delivered two well intervention vessels to Siem Offshore. The first of the vessels with a length of nearly 159m was the »Siem Helix 1« in June 2016, followed by »Siem Helix 2« six months later. In November, the »Searoad Mersey II« was handed over to Australian customer SeaRoad. It was awarded by HANSA as »Ship of the year 2016« (see also pages 49–57 for more details).

Also the inland shipyards that mainly build work boats, smaller passenger ships and ferries for rivers or lakes as well as barges and prams, have suffered in orders. But as the bigger yards, mainly focused on building seagoing vessels, the smaller ones realized more orders for this year and beyond.

The short time work Blohm+Voss announced only a few months after the takover by Lürssen is seen as a negative indicator for the German shipbuilders nower days. This decision came in reaction to the inadequate order situation, the company stated. From mid-January on, 70 employees of the construction department started shorttime work. »The order situation at Blohm + Voss is currently unsatisfactory and this has a particular impact on the utilization rate in the area of construction,« sai Dieter Dehlke, Managing Director of the shipyard. For the second half of the year the company expects an improved order situation.

Another merger has been announced in the German shipbuilding industry: From February on, German Dry Docks, BREDO Dock Company and Mützelfeldwerft will form a joint shipyard repair alliance, called the German Dry Docks Group.