Insolvent German shipyard looking for new owner

A day after two shipyards in Germany announced they were insolvent, politicians and unions in the port city of Bremen said on Tuesday they were looking for ways to keep one of the sites open for business.

"It is important that we maintain the shipyard site" used by the manufacturers Lloyd-Werft, said Doreen Arnold, a representative from major metalworkers' union IG Metall.

This was important for Lloyd-Werft's 300 employees and for the port region as a whole, she said.

Two senators in Bremen, Kristina Vogt and Claudia Schilling, said they plan to discuss the situation with the interim insolvency administrator Per Hendrik Heerma on Tuesday.

Like the larger MV Werften shipyards on the Baltic Sea, which also declared insolvency on Monday, the Lloyd shipyard on the North Sea is owned by Genting Hong Kong, which has run into difficulties due to the crisis in the cruise industry.

A 'regional buyer'

Vogt, who is senator for economic affairs in the city, told local reporters that she wants to look for a regional buyer for the shipyard.

The steel and shipbuilding group Rönner, based in nearby Bremerhaven, had expressed interest in Lloyd in 2021 but the negotiations with Genting did not result in a deal at the time.