World Report

The Greeks have been seafarers from the earliest times. Today they have the most important shipping industry in the world

Major investment is being put into Hellenic Shipyards by its German owners

hipping is a key sector in the modern Greek economy and a significant employer. Greek-owned vessels comprise almost 10 per cent of the world’s merchant fleet, with some 3,355 ships totalling almost 20 per cent of gross tonnage.

Oil tankers and bulk cargo carriers account for Greece’s rising transport receipts, but there is also a significant fishing fleet and hundreds of coastal shipping vessels plying back and forth between the mainland and the islands. The Hellenic Navy plays an important role in the regional operations of NATO, of which Greece has been a member since 1952.

Greece boasts a large number of ports and passenger, merchandise and shipping traffic are all on the increase. The largest, the Port of Piraeus, is a leading transshipment centre, the southeastern gateway to the European Union and one of the world’s busiest ferry ports.

In recent times, the Greek shipbuilding industry has had to face serious competition from other countries and has had to restructure and diversify.
Dieter Görlitz (INTERVIEW), Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Hellenic Shipyards (HSY) says: “We have tried to identify our niche markets and are focusing on our ability to build new, small and specialised vessels, repairs, conversions, naval surface ships and submarines.”

Dieter Görlitz
Chairman and CEO of Hellenic Shipyards
‘This is a world-class facility in terms of technology and quality’

Located in Skaramanga, north of Athens, where it extends over 800 hectares, HSY is the largest shipbuilding and ship repair yard in Greece and boasts the largest dry dock facility in the Mediterranean Sea.
Established by the Hellenic Navy in 1939, the shipyard was partially privatised in 1995. In 2002, ownership passed to Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (HDW), the biggest shipyard in Germany, and Ferrostaal AG, who hold respectively 77 per cent and 23 per cent of it. Since then HDW has invested 130 million euros (£86 million) in the shipyard, providing new buildings, a new power station and air purifying driers and spending £2 million on repairs to a floating dock. The company says it plans to spend 65.8 million euros (£43.5 million) over the next five years.

Competition from abroad has led to restructuring and diversification

“HSY is a valued member of the HDW Group and we are investing heavily,” says Mr Görlitz. “Our efforts are oriented towards making this a modern, profitable and competitive facility.”

Over the last forty years, HSY has repaired and converted more than 9,000 commercial and naval vessels, including more than 130 ships of the US Sixth Fleet. The shipyard has recently finished two of four gunboats commissioned by the Greek Navy, and has a huge contract for the modernisation of six frigates.

Mr Görlitz believes HSY is one of the best production sites for submarines. The Greek Navy has ordered three Type 214 submarines from HDW, the second and third of which will be built at HSY for commission in 2008-09.
The shipyard is also active in the production of rolling stock. Seven contracts for rolling stock are due to be completed at the end of 2006 or early the following year and, in the meantime, HSY has fulfilled its obligations to deliver rolling stock needed for the Olympic Games.

Mr Görlitz hopes Greek ship owners, both in Greece and abroad, will increasingly come to rely on HSY. He emphasises the shipyard’s high-standard work and experienced labour force. “This is a world-class facility in terms of technology and quality,” he says.