History

Work began on constructing the yard that today is Damen Shipyards Mangalia in 1974. Then known as 2 Mai Mangalia Shipyard, it accepted its first vessels for repairs in 1980 and for the next 17 years repaired a wide variety of commercial vessels including tankers, bulk carriers and container ships. With Romania transitioning to a market economy, in 1997 Daewoo-Mangalia Heavy Industries S.A. took control of the yard in a joint venture with the existing owners and changed the focus to building large commercial vessels. In 2007, ship repair activities were suspended in order to focus on the yard’s newbuild orderbook and resumed in 2012, with another pause between 2014 and 2017. Over the past 20 years over 350 vessels have visited the yard for conversions, maintenance and repairs, and an investment programme started in 2008 contributed greatly to the yard’s repair and conversion activities by adding new assembly and painting facilities. Today the ship repair business is going at full steam, with Damen committed to maintaining it on the site as a core provision.