Damen Shipyards Group is expanding its presence in the Swedish market through a strategic partnership with Swedish company Lazarus Industriförvaltning. In addition to the yard in Oskarshamn, customers can now also use the services of Stockholms Reparationsvarv, a full-service ship repair yard located in Stockholm
“Sweden has always been an important market for us,” says Martin Verstraaten of Damen Shipyards Group. “For the Swedish Coast Guard, for example, we are currently building seven patrol vessels which will eventually be shipped to our shipyard in Oskarshamn to install and test owner’s deliveries. We have an order in production for four icebreaking tugs for Försvarets Materielverk (FMV) to be delivered in the end to the Swedish Navy and, in addition, we are still closely working together with Saab Kockums on the replacement of the Dutch submarines.”
On the photo:
Standing from left to right: Eric Moerkerk (Damen Shipyards Group), Jan Fjeldså (CEO Eurosteel), Flip van der Waal (Managing Director Oskarshamnsvarvet), Staffan Röberg (CEO Stockholm Repairyard).
Seated from left to right: Emile Poot (Damen Shipyards Group), Pascal Keck (Lazarus Industriförvaltning).
Consortium
“We have been working to increase our footprint in Sweden for some time now, initially through acquisitions”, Verstraaten continues. “That did not yield any results and so we have now opted for a partnership with Stockholms Reparationsvarv and our largest steel supplier Eurosteel in Nybro.” That involved transferring the ownership of our Oskarshamn shipyard to Lazarus Industriförvaltning, which also owns the two other companies.
“We at Lazarus Industriförvaltning, together with our portfolio companies Eurosteel and Stockholms Reparationsvarv, are enthusiastic about this new partnership”, says Claes Jonson, partner at Lazarus Industriförvaltning AB. “Eurosteel already works closely together with Oskarshamnsvarvet, to deliver state-of-the-art solutions to our customers. Through these new arrangements and the combined footprint of Oskarshamnsvarvet and Stockholms Reparationsvarv, we will going forward have two well established ship repair yards on the Swedish east coast, providing further strengthened offering to existing and new customers.”
Verstraaten: “Damen Shipyards Group can now serve our customers in Sweden with service hubs in both Oskarshamn and Stockholm. Those service hubs are supported by Damen Services from the Netherlands and our New-Build Sales organization. In addition, we will also be supplying the Swedish market with our unique Damen Modular Barges (DMBs) from both locations. These are standard pontoons that you can assemble like Lego bricks to provide comprehensive floating solutions.”
Synergy
This synergy will produce decisive solutions with which Damen, through these local partnerships, can fully serve its Swedish and international maritime customers in the areas of new construction, conversion, maintenance, repair and service.