Meyer Group in JV with Stengel

German shipyard Meyer Werft GmbH is intensifying a strategic relationship with long-standing tube manufacturing partner Stengel.

The two companies have joined forces to set up a new undertaking: Meyer Stengel Tubes UAB based in Vilnius, Lithuania as a specialist for pipe isometrics to supply all three Meyer sites in Papenburg, Warnemünde and Turku from 2020.

"This step became necessary in the face of increasing cost pressure from state-owned Chinese shipyards which are building more and more special ships and cruise liners, a market which was previously dominated by Europe," said a press release.

For the first time ever, the Meyer Group is making delivery of five cruise ships in one year to international customers. This order volume results in high capacity utilization rates for pipe production. By 2022 the Meyer Group's demand for pipe isometrics will increase by about 60% and cannot be covered by the existing pipe production facilities.

With the new company in Lithuania, Meyer is bringing employment to a European lo-cation that offers a mature infrastructure together with a qualified workforce, it said.

According to the release, the Meyer Group has been cultivating business relationships with Lithuania for many years, with components for the washrooms being supplied to the cabin production divisions of the shipyards in Papenburg, Rostock and Turku/Finland.

Additional capacities are also being generated at the site in Papenburg through investment in new pipe bending machines in the Meyer WERFT Pipe Center, which is al-ready one of the most advanced pipe production facilities in Europe.

This decision is a consistent step forward in the Meyer Group’s strategy to become a leading European shipbuilding company by further boosting the pooled European expertise on the cruise market, it said.