The word ”Croatian shipyard” isn’t bringing in the most positive of coverage of late.
Uljanik has dominated the press for several months, with its desperate workers even taking the streets in protest of the shipyard’s management body. Losses are being recorded and with the state’s hands tied to a certain degree, strategic partners are being desperately sought. Despite that, there may be light at the end of the tunnel for Croatian shipyards, as Uljanik completes the most expensive vessel to be made in Croatia, and the Viktor Lenac shipyard in Rijeka carries out maintenance for American vessels.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 19th of January, 2019, the USS Mount Whitney, a commander vessel, and its nearly three hundred crew members sailed to Rijeka yesterday. The Croatian shipyard ”Viktor Lenac” has become their usual remodeling base, and this time the Americans will stay about a month and a half, which is the length of time the work on this war ship is scheduled for.
As Novi list reported, the American vessel will stay at the Croatian shipyard to undergo regular maintenance, with focus on drive groups and propulsion, as well as electrical systems of the ship.
This Rijeka-based Croatian shipyard expects to be able to get jobs on one or two other ships which make up the US Sixth Fleet by the summer, for which there is news that tenders will eventually be announced and published.
Such good deals are valuable, and the good cooperation the Croatian shipyard has with the US Navy is something that carries financial stability for Viktor Lenac. This good relationship proved to be the big business result of the year 2017 in which the last major upgrading of this sixth fleet vessel was undertaken. In the Martinšćica shipyard, they boasted an impressive record gain of 37 million kuna.
Results for last year, according to the so-called ”balance” for the first nine months of 2018, are another story, since the Viktor Lenac shipyard had published huge losses of 11.9 million kuna by the end of September.
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