Chantiers de l'Atlantique

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Chantiers de l'Atlantique
legal form SA
founding 1861
Seat Saint Nazaire FranceFranceFrance 
management Jacques Hardelay ( CEO )
Number of employees 2,300
sales US $ 1.4 billion (2016)
Branch shipbuilding
Website www.chantiers-atlantique.com

The shipyard Chantiers de l'Atlantique ( German  Atlantic shipyards ), meanwhile STX France SA , is located in Saint-Nazaire , France , at the confluence of the Loire in the Atlantic . It is one of the largest shipbuilding companies in the world; Sales in 2016 were around EUR 1.4 billion . From January 4, 2010, STX France SA operated as a subsidiary of STX Europe ASA . With its subsidiaries, STX France designed and built ships, including passenger ships, seagoing ships and special ships for the military, as well as offshore systems. In 2018, the Italian group Fincantieri took over 50% of the shares in STX France. The company was then renamed back to Chantiers de l'Atlantique .

history

19th century

The history of the shipyard begins with the maritime industrialization of France in the mid-19th century. From the beginning, the existence of the shipyard was linked to the construction of ships of the line . At that time, Saint-Nazaire was designated as the main port of the line to South America by a law of July 18, 1840 , confirmed by three decrees in 1857, 1858 and 1861. The Ligne postale des Antilles et du Mexique of the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (CGT) was created. At that time, however, the technical knowledge for the construction of modern ships with steam engines and metal hulls was completely lacking in France. The CGT, from Napoleon III. obliged to establish the connection by April 1862, therefore bought three ships of the line in England. The line to Fort-de-France was opened on April 14, 1862. At the same time, the CGT founded a shipyard in Saint-Nazaire.

The technical knowledge came from Great Britain , where the Great Eastern had been built in 1857 - a metal ship with a length of 230 m. The Scot John Scott left the shipyard in Greenock and brought their techniques to France. He made the outer hulls at Penhoët and constructed four ships together with 15 English foremen and a workforce recruited in the Brière . On April 24, 1864, the 108 m long "Impératrice Eugénie" was the first ship of the Chantiers John Scott launched. The euphoria lasted only for a short time, however: in 1866 the Scott shipyard, which employed 1,800 people, went bankrupt . The CGT later reopened the shipyard as Chantiers de Penhoët . In 1882 the Société Anonyme des Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire from Nantes also settled there.

The Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard

20th century

Chantiers de la Loire and Chantiers de Penhoët merged in 1955 to form Chantiers de l'Atlantique .

In addition to the construction of liners, the construction of tankers was a mainstay of the shipyard for a long time: after the construction of the France , the shipyard modernized its production facilities in the early 1960s in order to be able to meet the requirements of the oil market. Until the France was built, the shipyard built the ships on a slipway ; as soon as the outer hull and superstructure were finished, they were released from the stack and slid across the bottom into the sea. Then they were completed on the quay. This method was no longer practicable for the increasingly larger new buildings at the time due to the strain on the trunk.

In 1984 the Alstom Group took over the shipyard, which was part of the Alstom Leroux Naval .

21st century

In January 2006, Alstom sold 75% of the shares in Chantiers de l'Atlantique to the Norwegian shipbuilding company Aker Yards (later STX Europe ), then a subsidiary of the Aker Solutions group, and undertook to keep the remaining 25% until 2010. In 2008 Aker Yards was sold to the South Korean STX Corporation , which from January 2010 acted as STX France, a subsidiary of STX Europe.

The Saint-Nazaire site was the last of 19 STX Europe shipyards to be up for sale. Both CMN in Cherbourg and Fincantieri in Italy were interested in a takeover . The competent court in Seoul agreed on Fincantieri as the preferred buyer. However, the French government did not allow Fincantieri to acquire a majority stake in France's largest shipyard, STX France. Fincantieri initially acquired 48% of the shares in STX France and became the company's largest shareholder. The French state continued to hold a 34.34% stake in the naval and cruise ship yard. The industrial group Direction des Constructions Navales (DCNS) , even in public hands, took over twelve percent of the shares. The remaining seven percent went to the Italian investor "Fondazione CR Trieste". In addition, the French state secured various veto rights on restructuring measures, knowledge transfer, strategic realignments, proposed partnerships and acquisitions. Fincantieri should then not be allowed to acquire an absolute majority for eight years and the sale of its own shares should also have to be coordinated with Paris.

The new French President Macron wanted to limit the Italian influence (Fincantieri is 72.5% state-owned) and therefore wanted Royal Caribbean and MSC to participate in the shipyard. In July 2017, the shipyard was temporarily placed under state control to prevent a takeover by Fincantieri.

Equipment wharf of the shipyard

An agreement was reached in September 2017. 50% of the shares are to be acquired by the Italian company Fincantieri and the company was renamed Chantiers de l'Atlantique again. The French state holds 34.34%, Constructions Navales 10%, the shipyard workforce 2.40% and the local suppliers 3.66%. In order to guarantee Fincantieri operational control of the company, the French state lends 1% of its stake to Fincantieri, but with a 12-year right of redemption if Fincantieri does not adhere to the agreements made on job security, governance and intellectual property . In February 2018, a purchase agreement was signed between Fincantieri and the French state for the acquisition of 50 percent of the shares by Fincantieri. The renaming took place on July 20, 2018.

The Chantiers de l'Atlantique build cruise ships, gas tankers , frigates and research vessels in the 2010s .

Shipyard facilities

The completed Batillus

The Forme Joubert dry dock , built between 1929 and 1934, is one of the largest dry docks in the world with its length of 350 m and width of 50 m . On 27./28. March 1942, the lock gate was destroyed by a British attack ( Operation Chariot ) to impair the capabilities of German capital ships (e.g. battleship Tirpitz ). Today it is mainly used to equip the ships before they are delivered and overhauled.

In the 1970s, a construction pool was created that is 1,200 m long and 60 m wide. It has different depths and allows the construction of up to three ships at the same time. This basin allowed the construction of four of the largest tankers in the world: Batillus , Bellamya , Pierre Guillaumat and Prairial . (Each of them with a loading capacity of about 500,000 tons of oil).

The increase in size of tankers was caused by the oil crisis in the 1970s when the Suez Canal was closed. This forced the tankers to make the longer voyage around Africa and the Cape of Good Hope . For example, another basin was created at the Chantiers de l'Atlantique, Basin C. It was supposed to be used for the construction of 1,000,000 tdw tankers, but after the Suez Canal reopened it was no longer necessary. This basin is used today for the final work on the ships.

The shipyard has the largest dry dock in France, dry dock B , with a length of 415 meters and a width of 66 meters.

Current order backlog

delivery Surname Measurement (GRT / GT) Client / owner / operator Remarks
2021 MSC Virtuosa 177,100 GT SwitzerlandSwitzerland MSC Cruises
2021 Wonder of the Seas ( Oasis class) 227,625 GT United StatesUnited States Royal Caribbean International
2021 Celebrity Beyond ( Edge class) 140,600 GT United StatesUnited States Celebrity cruises
2022 (S34) Transformer platform
2022 NN ( Edge class) 140,600 GT United StatesUnited States Celebrity cruises
2022 MSC Europe (World Class) 205,700 GT SwitzerlandSwitzerland MSC Cruises
2023 NN ( Meraviglia -Plus class) 177,100 GT SwitzerlandSwitzerland MSC Cruises
2023 NN ( Oasis class) 231,000 GT United StatesUnited States Royal Caribbean International
2024 NN (world class) 205,700 GT SwitzerlandSwitzerland MSC Cruises
2024 NN ( Edge class) 140,600 GT United StatesUnited States Celebrity cruises
2025 NN (world class) 205,700 GT SwitzerlandSwitzerland MSC Cruises
2027 NN (world class) 205,700 GT SwitzerlandSwitzerland MSC Cruises
TBA NN SwitzerlandSwitzerland MSC Cruises LNG propulsion, new ship class, 4 ships planned
TBA NN (Project Silenseas) SwitzerlandSwitzerland MSC Cruises Sailing ship

Web links

Commons : Chantiers de l'Atlantique  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ moyens industriels. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on May 22, 2016 ; accessed on May 22, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.stxfrance.com
  2. ↑ Fincantieri takes over STX France schiffundhafen.de, accessed on August 8, 2017
  3. ↑ Company Overview of STX France SA Bloomberg.com, accessed on August 8, 2017 (English)
  4. ↑ Fincantieri takes over STX France schiffundhafen.de, accessed on August 8, 2017
  5. ^ Maritime Herald, October 4, 2016
  6. ↑ CMN in for yard? , TradeWinds, January 30, 2015 (English)
  7. ↑ Fincantieri's bid for STX France approved by South Korean court. January 3, 2017, accessed June 1, 2017 .
  8. ↑ Since June 2017 Naval Group, SA
  9. ^ Agreement on STX France . In: Daily port report from April 11, 2017
  10. ↑ Macron does not want a takeover from Italy , FAZ, June 2, 2017, p. 18.
  11. ↑ Michael Stothard, James Politi: France angers Italy with threat to nationalize shipyard . In: Financial Times , July 26, 2017, accessed July 28, 2017.
  12. ^ Leigh Thomas, Crispian Balmer: France nationalises shipyard to thwart Italian majority, angering Rome , Reuters, July 27, 2017, accessed on July 28, 2017.
  13. ↑ Italy's Fincantieri to take control of France's STX, ending shipyard row (Reuters, September 27, 2017)
  14. ↑ STX France: a shared ownership but Italy's Fincantieri takes the helm (Seatrade Cruise News, September 27, 2017)
  15. ↑ Chantiers navals STX: 1% qui change (presque) tout (Europe1 online, September 27, 2017)
  16. ↑ Wolfhart Fabarius: Italians can take over STX France · Paris and Rome reach agreement · Fincantieri gets 51 percent of the shares in the large shipyard . In: Daily port report of September 29, 2017, p. 13
  17. ↑ FINCANTIERI SIGNS AN AGREEMENT WITH THE FRENCH STATE FOR THE ACQUISITION OF 50% OF STX FRANCE. February 2, 2018, accessed February 2, 2018 .
  18. ↑ STX France devient les Chantiers de l'Atlantique. July 20, 2018, accessed October 26, 2018 (French).
  19. ↑ https://www.meretmarine.com/fr/content/saint-nazaire-va-reprendre-le-nom-de-chantiers-de-latlantique
  20. ↑ http://chantiers-atlantique.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/18.07.18.-CP-LES-CHANTIERS-DE-ST-NAZAIRE-REPRENNENT-LEUR-NOM-HISTORIQUE.pdf
  21. ↑ Chantiers de l'Atlantique: la livraison du MSC Virtuosa repoussée de plusieurs mois. May 5, 2020, accessed May 5, 2020 (French).
  22. ^ Saint-Nazaire: la construction du premier Edge Jumbo a débuté. January 29, 2020, accessed on January 29, 2020 (French).
  23. ↑ Eolien: Saint-Nazaire lance la construction de la première française sous-station. January 10, 2020, accessed on January 11, 2020 (French).
  24. ↑ MSC CRUISES CELEBRATES TWO MAJOR MILESTONES MARKING ANOTHER IMPORTANT STEP FORWARD IN ITS LONG-TERM COMMITMENT TO ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP. October 31, 2019, accessed November 1, 2019 .
  25. ↑ Commande d'un nouveau paquebot de la classe Oasis. February 18, 2019, accessed February 19, 2018 (French).
  26. ↑ Chantiers de l'Atlantique to build a new Oasis-Class cruise ship for Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. In: chantiers-atlantique.com/. February 28, 2019, accessed on March 29, 2020 .
  27. ^ A new order for Chantiers de l'Atlantique. April 11, 2019, accessed April 12, 2019 .
  28. ↑ a b c MSC CRUISES EXTENDS FLEET EXPANSION PLAN UP TO 2030, WITH FOCUS ON NEXT-GENERATION ENVIROMENTAL TECHNOLOGY. January 20, 2020, accessed on March 29, 2020 .
  29. ↑ Silenseas. In: Chantiers de l'Atlantique.com. Retrieved March 29, 2020 .

Coordinates: 47 ° 16 '50 "  N , 2 ° 12' 31"  W.