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A Brief History of Hellenic Shipyards S.A.
Hellenic tradition and recent privatization process
In 1939 the Royal Greek Navy founded the Royal Hellenic Naval
Shipyard, in the area of Skaramagas, close to Athens. Despite the
fact that the government invested heavily in setting up the
facilities, the coming of World War II prevented the shipyard from
operating. Eighteen years later, in 1957, the Greek tycoon Stavros
Niarhos purchased the shipyard, expanded its facilities and renamed
it "Hellenic Shipyards". Today, Hellenic Shipyards S.A. is the
largest shipyard in Greece and one of the largest in the area of the
Mediterranean. Its impressive growth in terms of assets, personnel
and achievements is a success story that finds few parallels in the
industrial history of Greece.
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With the capacity to repair up to 18 ships concurrently and the
ability to service every conceivable repair requirement of its
customers the Shipyard has always been very strong in the ship
repairs sector. In its fifty year history it has repaired and
converted well over 9,000 commercial and navy vessels of all types
and sizes, including over 130 ships of the US Navy fleet. In the mid
1970’s, the Shipyard entered the naval new buildings market by
constructing a series of Abeking’s Delos Class Coastal Patrol
Vessels for the Hellenic Navy. It has since expanded into the
construction of Fast Attack Crafts, Fast Patrol Missile Boats,
Frigates, Gunboats and most recently Submarines, the first to be
constructed in Greece.
Recognizing the advisability of diversification early in its
operations, and taking advantage of its facilities and capabilities
for industrial works, the Shipyard began undertaking industrial
steel and engineering projects. Over the years it has constructed
steel structures for large industrial complexes, fuel storage tanks,
offshore buoys, offshore production platforms and other specialized
steel structures. In the 1980’s the Industrial Division undertook
its first rolling stock work. It has since constructed, converted
and repaired a wide variety of passenger wagons, diesel railcars of
both standard and metric gauge, high comfort intercity passenger
cars, sleeping rail cars, electric rail cars etc.
The profound world-shipping crisis of the 1980’s had a decisive
effect on Hellenic Shipyards, as activity levels in all sectors
declined. Despite downsizing, the Shipyard continued to experience
difficulties. In 1985, and in view of the strategic importance of
the Shipyard both for national defense and for the survival of the
shipbuilding-ship repair industry in Greece, the ownership of the
company passed into the hands of the Hellenic Bank for Industrial
Development (ETVA). In 1995 ETVA reached an agreement with the
Hellenic Shipyards’ Workers Cooperative, to which all Shipyard
workers had an equal share, for the sale of 49% of the company.
This novel ownership scheme began entrenching the necessary ground
of stability for the Shipyard, and finally led to the Shipyards’
full privatization by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG in consortium
with Ferrostaal AG, companies of major international financial and
technological level, on May 31, 2002. With the closing on January 5,
2005, the merger of ThyssenKrupp shipyards and the HDW-Group has
developed a strong, big, European shipyard group - ThyssenKrupp
Marine Systems (TKMS), headquartered in Hamburg and represented in
Greece by Hellenic Shipyards S.A. Together with the TKMS know-how
transfer, the Shipyard’s privileged geographical position, its
remarkable facilities and its staff’s rich technical experience,
Hellenic Shipyards S.A. has opened the most promising chapter in its
recent history and aspires to an even higher level of
competitiveness.
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