While the Meyer Shipyard is set to be rescued by a state intervention, a smaller shipyard in Stralsund has taken a different path. On Thursday, the Fosen Shipyard in Stralsund filed for insolvency.
The German federal government and the state of Lower Saxony are planning to temporarily take over the majority of shares in the Meyer Shipyard in Papenburg to save the historic shipyard. This was the message delivered by Chancellor Olaf Scholz during a visit to the shipyard on Thursday. However, the future of shipbuilding is not only uncertain in Papenburg. In Stralsund, a much smaller shipbuilding company is also fighting for survival.
According to reports by WirtschaftsWoche, both Fosen Shipyard GmbH and Fosen Shipyard Stralsund GmbH have filed for insolvency. The district court in Stralsund has appointed Biner Bähr, a seasoned lawyer from the firm White & Case, as the preliminary insolvency administrator, as revealed by court documents.
On Wednesday, it was announced that the city of Stralsund had terminated the lease with Fosen Shipyard GmbH for the large shipbuilding hall of the former Volkswerft Stralsund. The city administration stated that Fosen had not succeeded in securing the expected shipbuilding and steel construction projects or in creating the anticipated number of jobs, despite intensive efforts. Consequently, the city decided to terminate the lease early.
After the MV Werften group declared bankruptcy in 2022, the city of Stralsund took over the shipyard and developed a maritime industrial park. Fosen had been a key tenant, particularly of the large shipbuilding hall. The company had recently been refurbishing the former sailing training ship “Greif,” once known as “Wilhelm Pieck,” which served as the state yacht of East Germany. Previously, the sailing training ship “Gorch Fock I” had also been repaired at Fosen Shipyard. In February, the Norwegian Fosen Yard AS had already filed for bankruptcy.
