Rescue package for leading ro-ro builder

Despite full order books and work into 2018, managing director Rüdiger Fuchs and board chairman Eysten Eriksrud warned in September that there had been heavy losses for four years running with production costs outgrowing earnings.

Yard structures were outdated, they added, warning that there had been no change in ten years while big-ship building had moved on in that time. Fuchs declared: “We have some good ideas to get out of this hole. But some of them are of course painful”.

Those ideas have now been accepted at talks involving FSG management, works council and trade unions. That follows approval of the talks by FSG’s 750 employees, who voted to avoid insolvency.

A statement after the joint talks said it had been agreed that 98 jobs would go with compensation offered and a job transfer company in place to help those affected. Flexible working will be introduced to balance out demand, voluntary pay reductions of 5.5% will hopefully save €7 million a year and an 8% increased productivity target set for this year.

The statement also said that FSG, its Norwegian owners Siem Industries, banks and credit insurance firms had agreed financing and a pledge of local state support for four ro-ro and one ro-pax newbuilds. Management said these steps would enable it to put FSG onto a new footing and make it fit for the future. One new focus would be on the technical outfitting of ships, it said.

Yard spokeswoman Frauken Maier told The Motorship the secured finance was for four ro-ro newbuildings ordered earlier this year by Siem for delivery 2017 and 2018, as well as a €144 million ro-pax ferry for ICG Irish Ferries for delivery in 2018. The yard has just handed over the LNG-fuelled Searoad Mersey II, the second of two ro-ro cargo vessels for Australian firm Searoad. FSG has built big ships for 144 years.