- The struggling Meyer Shipyard is to build four ships for Disney
The financially struggling Meyer Werft has secured a major new contract: It will build four cruise ships for Disney Cruise Line by 2031. According to the company, this is the largest order in the history of Meyer Werft. The exact value of the order was not disclosed by the shipyard from the Lower Saxon town of Papenburg.
The four ships are scheduled to be delivered between 2027 and 2031. Details about the design, names, and routes are currently in development. "These new orders are a further strong and positive signal for the future of jobs in Papenburg for the works council and all colleagues," said owner Bernard Meyer, who signed the agreement with Disney last week.
340 jobs are to be cut due to a billion-dollar funding gap
Meyer Werft is facing the most severe crisis in its over 200-year history and needs to raise more than 2.7 billion euros by the end of 2027 to finance new ship construction. The contracts for the cruise ships were concluded partly before the Corona pandemic and do not provide for any adjustment to the significantly increased energy and raw material prices since then. The shipyard only receives around 80 percent of the purchase price upon delivery, so it has to bridge the construction with interim loans.
Therefore, the management agreed with the works council and IG Metall at the beginning of July on a restructuring concept. 340 of the more than 3,000 jobs are to be cut. In addition, a supervisory board and a group works council are to be established, and the company headquarters is to be moved back to Germany. State aid from the federal government and the state of Lower Saxony is also being discussed.
The crisis at Meyer Werft has put 340 jobs at risk due to a funding gap exceeding a billion euros. Despite this crisis, Meyer Werft has managed to secure a major new contract with Disney Cruise Line, which is the largest order in the company's history.
