Damen Shipyards may start building four frigates for the German navy. It is the largest German naval order ever secured by the Gorinchem-based company.
Damen won the contract ahead of a German consortium comprising German Naval Yards and ThyssenKrupp, according to the Financieel Dagblad. The award by the Minister of Defence is still subject to approval by the German parliament.
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The company will build four frigates of the MKS 180 type. There is also an option for another two frigates. In total, it is an order worth as much as EUR 5.3 billion.
Hamburg shipyard
The frigates will be built at Damen's German partner Blohm + Voss in Hamburg. According to the FD, German media have long predicted that Damen would win the mega order. The company is also still in the race to replace four submarines in the Netherlands.
Lobby
To win the order, Damen agreed, among other things, to work with more than 100 German suppliers and create hundreds of jobs. FD quotes Hein van Ameijden, director of the Vlissingen-based naval shipyard Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding, who wrote a letter to the German parliament last year: "One of the important reasons for the German defence minister to start a European tender procedure for the MKS180 ships is the observation that many large German defence projects have been delivered much too late, and with significant budget overruns. That Damen is now among the last two bidders is partly due to the fact that we have always delivered our ships on time and on budget over the past 15 years."
Source: Financieel Dagblad.
