Damen Shipyard Group Announce Major Expansion In 2023

Damen Shipyard Group is investing in additional facilities in their Gorinchem yard, including additional repair facilities and a 150-tonne ship lift.

The Damen Group, based in Gorinchem in South Holland is a family-owned company, and has been operating for over 100 years, offering a full range of ship building and ship services. The group intend on the updated shipyard in Gorinchem being an optimal location for the design, maintenance, repair, conversion and building of new ships of up to 90 metres, whilst their Hardinxveld-Giessendam yard will be divested before the projects completion.

The group, acknowledging the need to strengthen the national maritime manufacturing industry, have invested in additional repair facilities and a brand new ship lift.

Managing director Jos van Woerkum stated that:

“We are seeing how, in the future, more work will be done for Dutch customers in the Netherlands. There is no room for further growth at our yard in Hardinxveld-Giessendam and so we are turning to Gorinchem.”

In addition to the shipyard, the same site at Avelingen-West in Gorinchem is home to the global headquarters of Damen Shipyards Group.

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The 150-tonne ship lift, along with other new facilities, is set for completion in late 2023.

Van Woerkum explains:

“For us, this means we will have a lot more options than at our yard in Hardinxveld, where we have a 40-tonne lift,”  “As a result, we can respond to rising demand from local companies in the region, who have been customers in our home town of Hardinxveld from the very beginning.”

Approximately all seventy of the individuals that make up the workforce at Hardinxveld-Giessendam, will move to the yard in Gorinchem. Meanwhile, the Damen Shipyards Group will maintain a presence in Hardinxveld-Giessendam with Damen Marine Components, continuing to employ around 90 people. 

Damen Shipyards Group is active in other areas of the Netherlands, with yards in Vlissingen, Den Helder, Werkendam and Nijkerk, all with different areas of speciality. The group also has repair yards in Vlissingen, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Schiedam, Harlingen and Den Helder, and on the island of Texel.