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The yard in Harlingen, well busy with newbuildings and repair vessels
The group has been very successful
building containerships. It received
its first containership order in 1990
from the Bremen-based Bruno Bischoff
Reederei. The vessel was delivered as
the “Bremer Export” on March 8th
1991. The 3,628 tdw newbuilding was
equipped with two hydraulic 30t deck
cranes and had a total container capacity
of 190 TEU, as well as 20 reefer plugs
for refrigerated containers.
The design of the “Bremer Bischoff”
was the basis for a long series of containerships
that were constantly
enlarged and optimised. Volharding
built an impressive 35 units of the
4,200 tdw type, for example, which was
developed along with the Dutch shipping
line Wagenborg and built from
1993. These were followed by a series
of 8,700 tdw vessels that was just as
well received by shipping lines.
At this time when it was achieving
good capacity utilisation, Volharding
acquired the yard Pattje including
its excellent fitting-out facility in Eemshaven
in 1998. The new Volharding/
Pattje team developed, for example, a
special 3,200 tdw vessel type, which
was optimised for operation on the
Baltic, Saima Canal and South Finnish
lakes and built in series as the “Pattje
Saimax”. The hulls were delivered from
Romania, by Daewoo Mangalia Heavy
Industries (DMHI), with fitting out
being performed in Eemshaven. This
project marked the beginning of a partnership
that functioned smoothly and
was continued for later newbuildings.
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The production of entire newbuildings
was, incidentally, also subcontracted
out to Romania at times when there
were more than enough orders to cope
with “at home”.
In 2001, Volharding acquired Frisian
Shipyard, engaging in both newbuilding
and repair business. A new Ro-Ro
vessel type was developed for this yard,
again in cooperation with the shipping
line Wagenborg, which had become
one of the company’s most important
customers. The hulls for this type were
also supplied from Romania, with fitting
out being performed in Harlingen.
Volharding also developed a 750
TEU containership, of which a total of
eleven units were delivered to German
and Dutch lines up to 2005. The capacity
of this type has been meanwhile
been increased to 900 TEU, with the
Ukraine shipyard Okean delivering the
hulls for subsequent fitting out in Harlingen.
The 900 TEU vessels are built for
Beluga-Reederei in Bremen and JP Shipping
in Harlingen.
A series of ten 900 TEU vessels is currently
under construction at the shipyard
Deniz in Izmir in Turkey. In 2004
Volharding founded a joint venture
with this yard, which at that time
started building tanker hulls. As it
proved impossible to have further hulls
delivered from Romania, the fittingout
facility in Eemshaven was closed
and the fitting-out pontoon used there
transferred to Turkey.
Eager to emphasise its increasing
international orientation, Volharding
notes that in addition to its European
activities it builds multipurpose carriers
at Chinese and Vietnamese yards
in cooperation with German shipping
lines. Volharding has already cooperated
effectively with the Chinese shipyards
for quite some time, mostly on
behalf of German customers.
Two shipyard locations
Outside its administrative centre in
Westerbroek and following the closure
of the fitting-out berth in Eemshaven,
Volharding Group is active at two
locations in the Netherlands: Foxhol
and Harlingen. There the group has a
total of 230 employees building about
twelve to 20 ships annually, with sales
averaging €200m.
Foxhol is the oldest site. This was
where the barge “tjalk” already mentioned
was built, and the group as it
is active today developed from Foxhol,
where vessels of all types used to be
produced, although their size remained
restricted on account of the water conditions.
The maximum beam was thus
16m. “Our newbuildings have therefore
always been very lean ships,” it is stated.
Mainly subassemblies and deckhouses,
also for other yards, are now produced
in Foxhol, where there is a shipbuilding
hall with advanced equipment and all
other necessary facilities.
The Harlingen location has been
developed into the group’s newbuilding
centre, the focus of which is a fully
covered drydock and fitting-out quay.