Crane breakdown at Odense shipyard

Shortly after 1 pm Sunday afternoon, the large gantry crane at the Odense Steel Shipyard was suddenly and unexpectedly hit by an extreme gust of wind resulting in the crane travelling uncontrolled on its tracks. The operational brakes of the gantry crane were unable to withstand this severe impact and, after travelling approximately 300 metres, the gantry crane was finally brought to a stop. Unfortunately two of the

shipyard?s tower cranes were struck during this event but, fortunately, no personal injury occurred.

One of the tower cranes was tipped over and parts of it fell into the dry dock and the crane has been completely wrecked. The dry dock was empty after Friday?s launch of the latest new building. The other tower crane was struck by a lifting yoke of the gantry crane causing significant damage. The full extent of this damage has not yet been fully assessed and, in order to observe safety measures, the related production areas of the Shipyard have been closed down.

Utility supply lines to the Shipyard have been disconnected and will not be reconnected for the time being which resulted in temporarily sending home all production workers and subcontractors. This force majeure situation will remain while the yard evaluates the consequences for the building programme and works out a plan how to re-establish all production areas. The shipyard expects to re-establish essential areas of production in a matter of days.