Shipbuilding in the Romanian port city of Galati can be traced to 15th century craftsmen who supplied the then small fishing village with the vessels that provided the town with its livelihood.
Today, the city, which is located along the Danube River and a navigational channel leading
into the Black Sea, is home to Damen Shipyards Galati, Romania’s leading shipbuilder for more than 100 years.
Since 1990, the yard has delivered a wide range of vessels to West European owners using production methods that strictly comply with ISO 9001 standards.

Ion Mocanu General Director of Damen Shipyards Galati

The former state-owned shipyard is now part of the Damen Shipyards Group, which is based in the Netherlands, and it is also often used as an example of one of Romania’s most successful privatizations.
“But even before privatization, we were a good company,”
recalls Ion Mocanu, general director of Damen Shipyards Galati. “We never had losses or debts, and in fact, every year brought good profits. This is quite a contrast to other Romanian companies that are beginning their privatizations.”

The group itself is active in shipbuilding and ship repair internationally, with operations in the Netherlands, Britain, Germany, Poland, China, the United States and Romania.

Galati is the market’s preferred supplier of vessels between 500 and 20,000 dwt

The Galati shipyard is the market’s preferred supplier of vessels between 500 and 20,000 dwt. After the company was privatized, profits soared from US$22 million in 1998 to US$68 million last year.
“The key element remains the profit potential of the company,” Mr. Mocanu points out. “Huge investment in the Damen Shipyards Galati brought immediate results, with profits doubling this year.”
The company’s restructuring process began back in 1990, long before privatization, when the shipyard had to reduce its 9,400-strong workforce by half without any traumatic layoffs.
“This process of decreasing the number of workers while increasing productivity turned out to be very beneficial for us,” Mr. Mocanu recalls. “It took us eight years to gradually do it, but luckily we did not encounter any problems with the workers or the union along the way.”

Financing was another key element in the company’s transformation, Mr. Mocanu says. “Damen Shipyards Galati had really good investors. I believe that our luck lay in the fact that the privatization of our company was accomplished with the assistance of the West European group, which has about 200 or 300 small shipyards around the world, but Galati is their biggest. I consider that the privatization was crucial, because the Romanian shipyard has a lot of responsibility in the area. Representatives from the international group are now assisting us with our latest restructuring program.”