Germany Will Seek $6.3M From Kvaerner

The European Commission asked Germany to recover $6.31 million in subsidies from Kvaerner ASA because a production ceiling at a German shipbuilding subsidiary had been breached in 1997. This is the second time in less than a year that the company has been asked to repay German aid granted to its Kvaerner Warnow Werft (KWW) shipyard in eastern Germany. In Tuesday's decision, the Commission said KWW had exceeded an annual capacity limitation of 85,000 cgt by over 10 percent in 1997. The company, which employs around 1,200 people in the region of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, was privatized in 1992 through its sale to Kvaerner with total German restructuring aid of almost $800 million. The subsidies had been approved by the European Union's competition watchdog on the condition of the strict application of annual production ceilings to limit distortions of competition.