540 Million Dollars for Daewoo Mangalia

Daewoo Mangalia will cash approximately 540 million dollars from a German company, for six ships, the biggest ever built in this region of the world.

Most of the people in Mangalia live exclusively on the activity of the shipyard.

At the end of this week, Daewoo Mangalia Heavy Industries (DMHI) will sign a record deal. The Korean-Romanian mixed company is to deliver until 2009, six container-carrier ships to the German company Hamburg South, which is part of the famous concern Oetker Group. The value of the deal will be greater than half a billion dollars.

INVESTMENTS. DMHI is a joint venture company having private capital in the majority. The mixed company has been initiated in 1997, with the participation of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Cp. Ltd. (51%) and of the Mangalia 2nd of May Shipyard (49%). With 3,400 direct employees and 2,000 subcontractors, the shipyard in Mangalia has benefited from direct investments of almost 40 million dollars, and an addition of know-how estimated at 20 million dollars, taking into account that South Korea is the world leader in ship building.

RECORD. Starting with 2000, after reaching an investment fund of 30 million dollars and after the training of the personnel (on all the competence level) in Korea, at the huge shipyard Okpo, DMHI has changed its strategical product, going to the building ships with superior added value. From 2004, the production of great dimensioned ships has started in Mangalia, Gheorghe Petrescu, the executive vice-president of DMHI, stated for Jurnalul National. The ships in the deal with Hamburg South (of Post-Panamax type) have a construction width of 40 meters and are the biggest ever to be built in Romania and in all the ports of the Black Sea.

OBJECTIVE. For 2005, DMHI estimates to reach a turnover of 250 million dollars, almost 120 million dollars more than last year, according to the sayings of vice-president Petrescu. The assumed objective of the team in Mangalia is that by 2009 the company’s sales would get over half a billion dollars. The main problems that the company deals with are caused by the appreciation of the national currency in comparison to the main foreign currencies, especially if we take into account that most of the finite products are exported, and the unprecedented rise in the price (more than double) of steel.