Germany’s Rheinmetall Acquires Romania’s Mangalia Shipyard
The long-running battle over the future of Romania’s Mangalia Shipyard was settled with the court-appointed liquidator confirmed a deal to sell the yard, with the goal of quickly resuming work. Germany’s Rheinmetall has agreed to acquire the yard for €138 million ($154 million) as part of an effort to build four ships for the Romanian Navy.
Once one of the largest shipyards in Europe and a major employer in Romania, the yard of late had been in a joint venture with the Damen Group. Reports said the yard had, at its peak a decade ago, employed between 2,000 and 2,500 people.
Damen entered into a joint venture with the Romanian government in 2018 to operate the yard as part of its Eastern European operations in addition to the Gala?i shipyard, which has been operating in Romania since 1999. Damen owned 49 percent of the joint venture for Mangalia, with the government holding the other 51 percent. However, according to media reports, the troubles began in 2023 when Romania changed the rules for the management of private enterprises, and Damen asserted it was a breach of contract for Mangalia.
Damen filed in 2024 to put the yard into insolvency, citing the large loans it had made to the joint venture for the modernization and operation of the yard. A plan to reorganize the operations was rejected by the creditors, of which Damen is the largest, and the courts declared the company bankrupt in April 2026.
The court-appointed liquidator set the value of the assets at €84 million, and the creditors agreed to a series of auctions starting at €184 million. By August, it was reported that the first three auctions had received no bidders, and the administrators were proposing to the court to begin lowering the price for the subsequent auctions. Under the rules, there were to have been six auctions at the full price, and then they were going to step down the price first to 75 percent and then potentially 50 percent. The yard was reported to have debts totalling €190 million.
Rheinmetall acquired the yard at 75 percent of the originally agreed auction price. Romania’s former Minister of Economy and now the Minister of Defense called it a major step forward in the promise to revitalize the operation and restore employment at Mangalia. He asserted the ministry had been offered just €10 million for the yard when the process began, and he rejected it despite criticism from opponents.
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The German company best known as an arms manufacturer entered shipbuilding with the acquisition of Naval Vessels Lürssen (NVL) in Germany, completed in March 2026. In May, it confirmed that it was exploring taking over Mangalia as part of its effort to build four ships for the Romanian Navy. It was awarded a contract valued at approximately €920 million in May 2026 under the European Union’s Security Action for Europe (SAFE) program, which includes the naval vessels for the Romanian Navy. It is to build two offshore patrol vessels (OPVs) and two support vessels.
Rheinmetall said the idea was to develop Romania into a major European production hub for shipbuilding. It confirmed that it was exploring sharing the yard with MSC Mediterranean Shipping Group. Previously, MSC had expressed interest to the Romanian government in restarting the yard for maintenance and then shipbuilding of commercial vessels.
