Papenburg (Germany Lower Saxony)

Papenburg is an Ems RIver cruise port, a major shipbuilding center and city in Germany's Lower Saxony state (Emsland district) with population around 40,000. Riverboats in Papenburg dock in Aschendorf (city district). Papenburg is best-known for the Meyer-Werft shipbuilding yard, where many of the newest (and largest) cruise liners are built. Meyer-Werft Papenburg also constructs cargo vessels (car carriers, bulk ships, container / boxships, LNG carriers), passenger ferries, even paddlesteamers.

Meyer Werft Papenburg shipyard

The shipbuilding company Meyer Werft GmbH has its headquarters here. The company was founded in 1795 and is currently among the world's largest shipbuilders of passenger ships.

Meyer Werft is a family-owned and managed company. In 1997, it became part of Meyer Neptun Group (with the acquisition of Neptun Werft in Rostock). In 2014, Finland's Turku Shipyard (named Meyer Turku Oy) was also added to the group. In September 2014, Meyer Werft acquired 70% of the shipbuilder STX Finland and also the Turku shipyard - from the shipbuilder STX Europe. The remaining 30% were owned by Finland. In 2015, the state-owned stake (30%) was also bought by Meyer Werft.

Meyer Werft became internationally recognized through its Ro-Ro ships (car carriers, car ferries), Ro-Pax ships (passenger ferries), boxships, livestock carriers, cruise ships.

"Dockhalle 2" is the world's largest shipbuilding hall. This is the world's first covered dry-dock - opened in 1987. The hall has length 370 m (1214 ft), width 101,5 m (333 ft) and heigt 60 m (197 ft). In 1991, the drydock was extended with 100 m (328 ft). In 2004, here was constructed a second roofed drydock, that was later extended to 504 m (length), 125 m (width) and 75 m (height). The project resulted into building capacity of 3 cruise ships a year.

In 2015, Meyer Werft invested EUR 10 million in a new technology and development center at Papenburg shipyard. The decision for a new (separate) building was due to the increasing number of employees and also the company's good shiporder book, The new building has total area 5500 m2 (59200 ft2 / on 4 floors) and houses about 400 engineers and designers involved mainly in cruise vessel projects. The state-of-the-art facility implements energy-saving techniques (geothermal cooling and heating). The construction was completed in January 2016. In the period 2003-2015, at the Papenburg shipyard Meyer Werft invested over EUR 550 million in new technologies (including robots, CAD-Software, laser welding, assembly lines, flow lines), in the second drydock's extensions (2008 and 2011), new pipe production center.

Shipyard Papenburg employs about 3300 workers. Over 500 work in Rostock (building river cruisers and special vessels). Over 1350 work at Meyer Turku In Finland (building ferries and cruise ships). MV Werften also owns and operates module fabrication facilities in Wismar and Stralsund.

In November 2023 was announced that with the Papenburg Shipyard Meyer Werft Group entered the offshore platform business. The orders (based on the facility's latest laser welding technology) were for steel works to convert offshore platforms for the North Sea-based HVDC systems NOR-3-2 (DolWin4), NOR-6-3 (BorWin4), NOR-9-1 (BalWin1) and NOR-10-1 (BalWin2). HVDC systems are stations (built on the platform) converting the 3-phase current into direct current.

On September 6, 2024, was announced that Germany's federal government will acquire a 40% stake in the Papenburg Shipyard, together with the Lower Saxony state taking an equal share (40%). The government's investment amounted to ~EUR 200M/~USD 222M. Also was announced that the government and Lower Saxony will guarantee 80% of a EUR 2,6 billion credit line for Meyer Werft, with the remaining 20% to be covered by private banks at their own risk.

Papenburg cruise terminal