Polish shipyard sale a disappointment

Poland said it had again failed to sell off two struggling shipyards, after receiving tenders for only a slice of what was on offer, three months after a deal with Qatari investors fell through.

The Polish treasury said that it had been able to attract buyers for just a 10.5 million zloty ($3.8 million) share of the 119 million zloty assets of the yard at Szczecin in the northwest.

The sale of another yard, at Gdynia in the north, was more successful but still a disappointed when only 90 million zloty of its 300 million-zloty value found buyers.

The treasury now plans to organise an auction for the unsold assets.

Among the two buyers of the main assets of the Gdynia shipyard is state-owned Nauta shipyard, a repair shipyard which will be taken over by the state’s Industrial Development Agency (ARP) this week. Nauta paid 57 million zloty for part of the assets encompassing the ship-equipment area, prefabrication of spatial constructions and equipment. The company also took part in the tender for the dry dock, but taking into account the determination of the competitor, it gave up. “We previously considered different scenarios and it will be cheaper to buy a floating dock,” said the president of Nauta.

The second buyer of assets, including the dry dock, is Energomontaæ-Polnoc, which paid 33 million zloty and plans to use the property to construct high-volume steel constructions for the chemical and energy sectors.

In July, the European Commission had cleared state aid at a third yard in the port of Gdansk, but still ordered a major restructuring there. The Gdansk yard was sold to Ukrainian shipbuilding group Donbass in 2007.