FRANKFURT, April 15 (Reuters) – Warship makers TKMS and Spain’s state-owned Navantia have signed a memorandum of understanding to explore cooperation on naval projects, including the potential production of TKMS submarine designs at Navantia’s shipyards in Spain, the companies said on Wednesday.
The agreement covers potential projects in Europe, within NATO and worldwide, and comes as both companies cite growing demand for naval vessels and bottlenecks in shipyard capacity and technological resources across Europe.
• Parties agreed to initiate management-level discussions in full compliance with competition and export control regulations
• The aim of talks is to explore how closer cooperation can help realise projects “more efficiently, quickly, and cost-effectively”
• Navantia is wholly owned by SEPI, a Spanish state holding company attached to the Ministry of Finance, and employs nearly 6,000 people in Spain
• TKMS, which is majority-owned by German industrial firm Thyssenkrupp, employs more than 9,100 people at shipyards in Kiel, Wismar and Itajai, Brazil
• “It is crucial that European industrial companies collaborate more closely,” said TKMS CEO Oliver Burkhard
(Reporting by Christoph SteitzEditing by Linda Pasquini)