Meyer Werft

History

The shipyard was founded at the beginning of 1795 by Willm Rolf Meyer as a yard specializing in small wooden vessels. Josef Lambert Meyer began building iron vessels in 1874.

During the Second World War, Meyer Werft mainly repaired ships, including ships from the Kriegsmarine.

There were once more than 20 shipyards in the Papenburg area, but today Meyer Werft is the only one remaining.

Meyer Werft gained international recognition through the construction of roll-on/roll-off ferries, passenger ferries, gasoline tankers, container ships, livestock ferries and most recently luxury cruise ships.

Meyer is one of the largest and most modern shipyards in the world with about 3300 employees, and home to the largest roofed dry docks in the world. The first covered dock was inaugurated in 1987 and was 370 meters long, 101,5 meters wide and 60 meters high. In 1990/91 the dock was extended by an additional 100 meters. In 2004, a second covered dock was built, which is announced to be extended to a full-length of 504 meters, a width of 125 meters and height of 75 meters in order to compete with Asian shipyards. Meyer Werft will as a result of this be able to build three cruise ships a year. Because the yard at Papenburg is upstream on the river Ems, the giant ships to be delivered have to make a 36 km voyage to the Dollart bay. These voyages attract thousands of spectators. Up until the completion of the Ems river barrier in 2002, the journey was only possible at high tides.

In September 2014 Meyer Werft acquired 70% ownership of STX Finland and the Turku shipyard STX Finland Oy from STX Europe with the state-owned Finnish Industry Investment owning the remaining 30%. The shipyard was renamed Meyer Turku Oy. Meyer Werft acquired the remaining 30% in 2015.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Meyer Werft ran into financial trouble due to a rise in energy and material costs for their shipbuilding contracts. In 2024, Meyer Werft needed €2.8 billion to complete its existing orders but were unable to obtain financing from banks. The German state and the States of Germany were asked to support the struggling shipyard. Chancellor Olaf Scholz proclaimed the systemic relevance of Meyer Werft in mid August 2024 and signaled the readiness to help out, pending approval by the Bundestag and the European Commission. On 13 September 2024, the German parliaments budgetary committee voted for the governments rescue plan. Research by Handelsblatt showed that the Federal Ministry of Finance had addressed the committee in a secret dossier and stressed the potential importance of the shipyard for military projects if global tensions should rise. However, Max Johns, Professor for Maritime Management with the HSBA called the claim of Meyer Werft's importance for military projects a "retroactive search for reasons" after politicians had already promised to help, and that ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems and Lürssen were already available. The contracts were signed on 16 September 2024, with the German government acquiring 80% of the company for €400 million. A week after the signing, systemic malpractices in management accounting were discovered, with the management apparently unaware of the actual state of Meyer Werft projects and never having produced monthly financial statements.

Entry of the state of Lower Saxony and the federal government ( September 2024 )

A report from summer 2024 confirmed that Meyer Werft had a positive restructuring perspective. The shipyard needed fresh capital by September 15, 2024. There is no private investor in sight. That's why the state and federal government decided to support the cash-strapped shipyard. On one hand, a guarantee worth at least two billion euros was needed, half of which was provided by the federal and state governments. On the other hand, Meyer Werft needed fresh equity capital. A 400 million euros contribution was debated. This meant that the state would take over the clear majority of the shipyard. The government of the state of Lower Saxony and the Scholz government signed contracts on September 16, 2024, by which the Federal Republic and the state of Lower Saxony take over around 80% of Meyer Werft.

In addition to the economic importance, the potential military importance also became known as a justification for the state's entry. A report from EY-Parthenon confirms that the Papenburg shipyard location, with its existing infrastructure, has a high level of suitability and capacity to be able to build naval ships in the event of increasing security tensions. Papenburg is out of range of Russian short-range missiles stationed in Kaliningrad Oblast. The security expert Sebastian Bruns put this into perspective, among other things: because the Meyer Werft relies on the Ems to be dammed by the Ems barrage to transport the ships it has built, which therefore also needs to be protected.

Ships built at Meyer Werft

Main article: List of ships built at Meyer Werft}}A large variety of ships have been built at Meyer Werft, including [[car carrier]]s, [[cargo ship]]s, [[container ship]]s, [[cruise ship]]s, [Ferry, [ferries]], [[fishing vessel]]s, [[gas carrier]]s, [[lightvessel]]s, [[paddlesteamer]]s, [[passenger ship]]s and [[Seebäderschiff]]s. During the last years, the shipyard was only building cruise ships.{{cite web

List of shipyards

• Meyer Werft (located in Papenburg, Germany)
• Neptun Werft (located in Rostock, Germany)
• Meyer Turku (located in Turku, Finland)

References

References

1. (2023-08-25). "Wechsel bei Meyer Werft: Bernd Eikens folgt auf Bernard Meyer".
2. (17 December 2024). "Meyer Werft in Papenburg: Bernard Meyer verlässt Chefetage".
3. Fisser, Dirk. (13 February 2025). "Nach Staatseinstieg: Geschäftsführung der Meyer Werft ist verkleinert worden".
4. (2021-03-15). "Substanz der deutschen Werften "bröckelt"".
5. "MEYER Group".
6. "Meyer Werft Workers Demiss".
7. (2014). "ERIH Entry: Meyer Shipyard". European Route of Industrial Heritage.
8. MEYER WERFT GmbH. "Triton".
9. (2008-01-18). "Meyer Werft baut größte Dockhalle der Welt". [[Spiegel Online]].
10. MEYER WERFT GmbH. "Press Release".
11. (4 August 2014). "Valtio ja Meyer Werft ostavat Turun telakan - kauppahinta ei julkinen". [[Turun Sanomat]].
12. MEYER WERFT GmbH. "Press Release".
13. (15 April 2015). "Meyer Buys Out Turku Shipyard".
14. Thaler, Claudia. (2024-08-22). "Niedersachsen: Bund will angeschlagene Meyer Werft retten". Die Zeit.
15. NDR. "Kriselnde Meyer Werft bekommt staatliche Hilfen - nur eine Partei stimmt nicht zu".
16. (2024-09-11). "Meyer Werft militärisch wichtig? Experte zweifelt an Begründung".
17. "Handelsblatt".
18. (2024-09-21). "Meyer Werft: Folgen fehlender Strukturen wirken in alle Bereiche hinein".
19. "Meyer Werft beginnt mit Stahlarbeiten für Offshore-Plattform".
20. (5 July 2024). "Fertigungsstart für Konverterplattform DolWin delta in der Meyer Werft".
21. (5 July 2024). "Meyer Werft startet Bau von Offshore-Konverterplattform".
22. (July 2024). "Trotz Krise: Meyer Werft startet Bau von Plattform für Windkraft | NOZ".
23. Schade, Gerd. (2024-07-04). "Energiewende: "Historischer Tag" auf der Meyer Werft in Papenburg {{!}} NOZ".
24. "Neues Geschäft für Papenburger Meyer Werft: Bau von Konverterstationen - buten un binnen".
25. "Start of Production for Converter Platform".
26. "Hauke Jürgensen on LinkedIn: #energytransition #HVDC #offshoregridconnections".
27. (2025-09-02). "Übertragungsnetzbetreiber Amprion plant und installiert Offshore-Netzanbindungssysteme".
28. "Disney Cruise plans new smaller design for 3 ships after 4th Wish".
29. Assies, Christoph. (2024-07-09). "Neuer Auftrag für die Meyer Werft".