HANSA Greek Shipping 2024 Posidonia Edition

SHIPBUILDING
75 years of MMG Propeller –
an eventful success story
The German company Mecklenburger Metallguss (MMG) is one of the world‘s leading
manufacturers of ship propellers. MMG was founded more than 150 years ago as a metal
casting company. For more than 75 years, the focus has been on ship propellers
Propellers that power the largest ships in the world are produced in the centre of Germany
© MMG
n the past, household appliances such
Ias saucepans, kettles and frying pans
were manufactured in Waren an der
Müritz, where MMG is based. Propellers
that drive ships all over the world have
been produced here for over 75 years. Industrial
propeller production began there
in 1948. The first ship propellers had a
raw casting weight of 3–4 tonnes and a
diameter of around 3 metres.
The production facility, which was
located in the Soviet-occupied zone, the
GDR, for many years, can look back on
an eventful history. When the Wall came
down in 1990, the company, which had
previously been state-controlled, passed
into private hands. Since November 1991,
the plant in Waren has been known as
Mecklenburger Metallguss, or MMG for
short. In the years that followed, the
manufacturer succeeded in establishing
itself on the shipbuilding market by
participating in various international
trade fairs and successfully acquiring
customers in South Korea and China.
The number of orders soon increased –
and so did the requirements. Shipyards
such as Samsung, Daewoo and Hanjin ordered
larger quantities of propellers from
1997 onwards, which made it necessary
to further expand the plant. Another
milestone in this year was the
introduction of structural analyses of
complex components using FEM
methods. In 1998, MMG set up its own
design office in Waren. In 2000, the
company invested in a large CNC milling
machine.
It became apparent that propellers with
delivery weights of over 100 tonnes
represented a gap in the market for the
next few years. A major challenge, but
ultimately the decision to position itself
on the market for large propellers at an
early stage led to MMG‘s subsequent
world market leadership. For the production
of these large propellers, a new foundry
hall was built within a very short
space of time in 2000, which had the
moulding, melting and crane capacities
for the planned supertanker propellers.
34 HANSA – Greek Shipping Edition 2024