Shipbuilder invests 10 million euros in Papenburg

MEYER WERFT once again invests in a future project at the Papenburg shipyard. Due to the continually increasing number of employees and the very good order situation of the shipyard, the decision has now been taken to build a new technology and development centre. In the new building complex, large parts of the design and development work is bundled for the new, complex new ships under construction. In future, a total of about 400 designers and engineers can work on the great variety of subject areas involved in cruise ships.

The new building will offer a surface area of about 5,500 m² on four floors. The overall investment amount is about 10 million euros and contains state-of-the-art building control techniques and energy-saving measures, e.g. the use of geothermal heating and cooling. The construction is to be concluded by the beginning of 2016.

CEO Bernard Meyer says: “We are convinced that we can only remain successful in fu-ture if our employees can pursue their exacting work under good working conditions. This is a great wish of our committed and highly-motivated employees.

In addition to this, the shipyard will adjust the areas for the recreation rooms and the can-teen areas so as to satisfy the increased requirements.

In the past twelve years the shipyard has already massively invested in the shipyard premise location and in new technologies (laser welding, robot technology, assembly lines and flow lines as well as CAD-Software, etc.): apart from the extension of the second dry dock (2008), the laser centre was expanded and modernised in 2008 and 2011, and a state-of-the-art pipe centre was created. In total, more than 550 million euros were invested in the past years.

Currently, more than 3,300 directly employed persons in Papenburg are building state-of-the-art, sea-going cruise ships. ln Rostock, about 500 directly employed persons are, for the largest part, building river-cruise ships and other special ships. In Finland, about 1,350 directly employed persons are currently working on new cruise ships and ferries.