The company official said that the Galati shipyard is the group’s second most important asset, following its Dutch subsidiary, and that Romania’s main advantage lies in lower costs than in other countries.
“If we look at the Romanian division’s net sales or profit, the figures do not reflect the extremely important role that Romania has within the Damen group,” van Ameijden added.
Damen Galati is the largest and most important of the group’s 34 divisions worldwide. Of the group’s 7,000 employees, some 3,000 are working in Galati. Moreover, of the 160 ships delivered annually worldwide by Damen, 25 percent are built in Romania, according to company officials.
“The Romanian division is capable of building ships with a high degree of complexity, and if we did not build them here, the alternative would be Western Europe. In Romania, even though net sales increased in the past two years, costs are lower than in the West, by some 20-25 percent in our case, which allows us to have a price-related competitive edge, compared to other European companies,” van Ameijden said.
