Insolvent but confident Pella Sietas goes back to work

The Elbe yard filed for insolvency last week after meeting its employees and after complaints by the shipbuilders’ union IG Metall.

IG Metall spokesman Emanual Glass said “employees have been waiting for their salaries for months”. He added that the news of the bankruptcy, although not unexpected had “still caused deep concern”. Reports said 350 yard employees along with about 300 contract workers were affected.

Pella-Sietas MD Natallia Dean was widely quoted as saying “liquidity bottlenecks caused by the Covid Pandemic and the dramatic economic situation in German shipbuilding” had led to the insolvency and also mentioned breakdowns in the supply chairn.

The yard, on the River Este tributary with the Elbe, has also long had to contend with regular silting up. Without regular dredging this has prevented finished ships from leaving, blocked construction facilities and delayed completions.

In a statement this week the yard said it had now with IG Metall support succeeded in making some wage payments to the workforce up to and including September. No redundancies are reported planned.

Insolvency administrator Achim Ahrendt said “this means that the work on the shipyard’s current orders will continue”. He also reported talks were underway on possible financial help from the Government’s Economic Stabilisation Fund (WSF).

Ahrendt added “we are working hard to make the oldest shipyard in Germany permanently sustainable in future”. Founded in 1635, Sietas was acquired in 2014 by Russia’s Pella Shipyard and there are reports that Pella might now again be among investors interested in continuing to keep Sietas afloat.

MD Natallia Dean has been quoted as saying the shipyard has a future despite its problems. She points to “an excellent order situation over the coming years”.

Topping the list of orders are two unique specialist newbuilds. One is a €100 million ice-breaker which at 119.8 x 27.5m is described as the biggest of its kind ever built in Germany. For delivery in 2023 to Russia it is the largest single order ever for Pella Sietas.

The second is the German Government’s €75 million, 133 x 23m trailing suction hopper dredge Osteriff. Originally for delivery in 2018 it was at last word being completed at Blohm + Voss in Hamburg following floating out last year at Pella Sietas – an operation delayed for a year by silt-buildup.

The yard also has a double-end ferry on order for a German coastal operator and is active in inland ferry building in Germany and abroad. It also builds and repairs ferries for leading Hamburg operator HADAG.