Petram sells German yard business to Rönner

Family concern Petram has been involved in shipbuilding in Bremerhaven, Germany’s second biggest universal port city, for 30 years. It has long co-operated with the Heinrich Rönner Group, also family-owned and also with shipbuilding interests.

Petram announced it had sold to Rönner its shares in the local yards Bremerhavener Dockgesellschaft (Bredo Dry Docks), German Dry Docks (GDD) and German Ship Repair (GSR). No price was disclosed.

Petram said it had “consciously decided, in the interests of the employees and the future of all the companies concerned, to pass our shares on to those we trust and not, for instance, to auction them off to capital investment concerns”. The comment appeared to be a reference to take-overs of German yard groups in the past by foreign capital investors and to industry job losses.

The yards in the Petram share sale employ more than 400 people with the biggest, Bredo, employing 250. Both groups told their employees, some of whom have worked in the yards for three generations, that no jobs will be lost as a result of the switch.

A joint statement by both families said the sale was the “logical consequence” of developments in recent years and “reflects our joint responsibility for the location”.

It follows many years of shipyard and shipbuilding co-operation between Petram and Rönner. Petram said they had together created what it described as “powerful parallel groups of companies” and laid the foundation for Bremerhaven’s current repair and conversion clout with eight docks available in its yards on the Weser and in Cuxhaven.

Rönner is involved in classical shipbuilding, ship repair and shipbuilding component manufacturing and supply. It is also active in a range of maritime and industrial engineering sectors.

As well as the three yards it now owns totally as a result of the Petram share purchase, Rönner also owns Mützelfeldwerft in Cuxhaven – now part of Bredo Dry Docks, and two former inland GDR shipbuilding facilities – the Rosslauer Schiffswerft in Dessau-Rosslau and the SET shipyard concern which groups newbuilding and repair facilities in Tangermünde and Genthin.