Papenburg (Germany)

Papenburg is a major shipbuilding centre and an Ems RIver cruise port in Lower Saxony (Germany). The city covers a total area of approx 118 km2 (46 ml2) and has population around 40,000.

Papenburg is most famous 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 of 30% was also bought by Meyer Werft.
• Meyer Werft became internationally recognized through its Ro-Ro ships (car carriers, car ferries), passenger ferry ships, boxships, livestock carriers, and cruise ships.
• The shipyard employs about 3300 workers.
• "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 centre 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 centre.
• At the Papenburg shipyard work over 3300 employees. Over 500 work in Rostock (building river cruisers and special vessels). Over 1350 work at Meyer Turku In Finland (building ferries and cruise ships).

Highlights: Floating maritime museum

Papenburg cruise terminal