Damen Shipyards Group is to enlarge its yard in Gorinchem (NL) further. Given the need to strengthen the national maritime manufacturing industry, the company is investing in additional repair facilities and a ship lift. Preparations will begin towards the end of this year.
“We are seeing how, in the future, more work will be done for Dutch customers in the Netherlands,” explains Jos van Woerkum, managing director of Damen Shipyards Hardinxveld. “There is no room for further growth at our yard in Hardinxveld-Giessendam and so we are turning to Gorinchem.”
In addition to the shipyard, the same site at Avelingen-West in Gorinchem is home to the global headquarters of Damen Shipyards Group.
Completion in late 2023
The completion of the new facilities, including a 150-tonne ship lift, will follow in late 2023. “For us, this means we will have a lot more options than at our yard in Hardinxveld, where we have a 40-tonne lift,” explains Van Woerkum. “As a result, we can respond to rising demand from local companies in the region, who have been customers in our home town of Hardinxveld from the very beginning.”
In late 2023, the entire Hardinxveld-Giessendam workforce, approximately seventy in all, will move to the yard in Gorinchem. By that time, it will be an optimal location for the design, maintenance, repair, conversion and new building of ships up to 90 metres. The yard in Hardinxveld-Giessendam will be divested before that time.
Damen Shipyards Group will maintain a presence in Hardinxveld-Giessendam with Damen Marine Components, which employs some ninety people.
Made in Holland
In addition to the yard in Gorinchem, Damen Shipyards Group is active in the Netherlands with yards for new building in Vlissingen (naval vessels and superyachts), Den Helder, Werkendam (inland shipping) and Nijkerk (dredging equipment). With repair yards in Vlissingen, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Schiedam, Harlingen and Den Helder, and on Texel. The shipyard in Stellendam focuses on repairs, refitting and fishing vessels. Finally, parts for the maritime sector are manufactured in Amsterdam, Hardinxveld-Giessendam, Schiedam, Vlissingen and Zwolle.