Feature 3
man-years of work for the yard and its had been revised. considering the huge supplier network
partners. With the unexpected bad news hitting required and the technical difficulty
The reorganisation saw shipyards in share prices hard, October saw an audacious of the ships in Aker Yards’ cruiseship
Turku, Helsinki, and Rauma getting move by Korean STX Shipbuilding, portfolio. Of course, there would be other
back a less centralised and more yard- which acquired a 39.2% shareholding in synergies to gain, including those from
led structure, with the yard manager Aker Yards, making it the biggest single containerships and LNG carriers.
overseeing traditional design and shareholder in the group. STX filed the At first seemingly wrong-footed by
production departments. Earlier, in acquisition at the European Commission, the STX move, Aker management have
July, Yrjö Julin was appointed president with shaken competition regulators subsequently been far from idle. In
of the whole of Aker Yards and Juha subsequently opening a 90-day, in-depth December, Aker Yards announced that it
Heikinheimo was appointed president investigation into the matter. This may or was looking into spinning off its offshore
of Aker Yards’ Cruise & Ferries business may not demand changes to the deal, or and specialised vessels business area,
area. The Cruise & Ferries business area even a deal-blocking decision. which has been very successful lately in
has production currently taking place in Speculation was rife that STX was both sales and earnings.
Finland, France, and Germany. Aker Yards looking for a short-cut into the cruise Then, suggestions emerged that
employs some 2300 of its own staff and market, particularly given the fact that the group had been in contact with
1600 suppliers at its main yard in Finland, STX has rapidly focused its home yards Fincantieri, looking towards a possible tie-
Aker Yards Turku. in Korea on more sophisticated tonnage, up. A straight merger of the two cruiseship
Even so, Aker Yards went on to issue and developed a new facility in China to building giants would be unlikely to
two result warnings last year, largely as a focus on bulk carriers and other more pass the EU’s competition authorities
result of production difficulties in Finland. straightforward merchant vessels. However, unchallenged but, and indeed regardless
In December, it announced another for the short to medium term, there of the outcome of the STX cooperation,
Nkr400m loss, mainly for the Cruise & appears to be little logic in trying to squeeze 2008 promises to be another interesting
Ferries business area, and said that the cruiseship construction into the already year for Aker Yards and for European
delivery schedule of some of the ferries very well booked Korean yards, especially shipbuilding as a whole. NA
The Naval Architect February 2008 67
NA Feb 08 - p64+65+
67.indd 67 05/02/2008 09:44:37
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