Thyssen says ?non? to DCN

The German group ThyssenKrupp sees no reason to join further consolidation attempts of the European naval shipyard industry. “There is no reason at all to press forward with the further consolidation of the European shipyards,” Thyssen management board member Olaf Berlien told journalists at Thyssen?s HDW shipyard.

French state-owned shipyards were several years behind in their development, Berlien said, adding that the French interest was not in consolidation but in acquisition. Shipbuilders such as Thyssen and France?s DCN have long talked about a potential alliance modeled after Franco-German aerospace and defense group EADS.

However, a recent power struggle between French and German sides over management control at EADS has exposed just how delicate such cross-border deals can be. The souring Franco-German industrial relations come amid a crisis in the European Union sparked by popular rejections of the European constitution in France and the Netherlands.

Other naval shipyards rumoured to be involved in earlier consolidation talks included Spanish and Italian shipyards but under German leadership and providing the French, Spanish and Italian shipyards are privatized.