BUCHAREST (Romania), April 8 (SeeNews) – Damen Mangalia, jointly owned by the Romanian state and Dutch group Damen, has signed several major contracts for new vessels and plans new hires, the country's economy ministry said on Monday.
The new contracts will allow the yard to operate at full capacity this summer, the ministry said in a press release.
The new deals are focused on all three sectors of activity of the Mangalia shipyard: cruise ships, passenger ships and offshore vessels.
One of the newly signed contracts is with Norway's SeaDream Yacht Club in Norway for a 155-meter luxury yacht. The deal marks the group's entry on the cruise ship market. The yacht will be built entirely at Damen Mangalia Shipyard.
Romanian workers will also build several transport vessels and a complex ship for offshore farms, with a loading capacity of over 10,000 tonnes.
"The partnership between Romania and Damen Group brings benefits for both sides, continuing a long shipbuilding tradition in the Black Sea. At the same time, new jobs, opportunities and prospects for future investors and suppliers are created," economy minister Niculae Badalau said.
In order to take on recently signed contracts, Damen intends to create new jobs in Mangalia and reach a headcount of 2,500 by the end of the year. When the Dutch group took over operational management of the shipyard in November, there were 1,700 employees at the site.
"The Mangalia site offers opportunities not only for the Damen group, but also for shipbuilding personnel and for the Romanian maritime industry as a whole," Damen Mangalia Shipyard managing director Chris Groninger said.
For the offshore segment, new manufacturing orders will include offshore structures, submarine patterns, various pipelines or floats for sea windmills and elements for aquaculture markets.
In November, Dutch group Damen entered into an agreement with Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) to buy its majority share in Romania-based Daewoo Mangalia Heavy Industries (DMHI) for an undisclosed sum.
DMHI was established in 1997 as a joint venture between South Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering and Romania's 2 Mai Mangalia Shipyard with Daewoo as majority shareholder, with 50.99%. The other shareholders of the joint venture are 2 Mai Mangalia Shipyard, which is owned by the Romanian economy ministry, with 48.99%, and three Korean investors.
Damen already owns a shipyard in Romania, in Galati, a port city on the Danube river, which is currently the group’s largest shipyard. Since joining Damen in 1999, the Galati shipyard has developed into an efficient production facility with a significant output of many hundreds of vessels and structures.
Damen Shipyards Group operates 36 shipbuilding and repair yards, employing 12,000 people worldwide. Damen has delivered more than 6,500 vessels in more than 100 countries and delivers some 160 vessels annually to customers worldwide.