STX France is to introduce short-time working for 750 employees in March and April, following a fall in workload at its flagship Saint Nazaire shipyard.
STX France is to introduce short-time working for 750 employees in March and April, following a fall in workload at its flagship Saint Nazaire shipyard.
After last month"s official cancellation of one of the two 2,100 cabin, Freestyle 3 vessels ordered by NCL and the news that MSC Cruises was looking to renegotiate terms for two 1,275-cabin vessels, the yard told employee representatives that production workshops are faced with a 100,000 hour shortfall in their workload in March and April.
The shortfall ? 25,000 hours in March and 75,000 hours in April ? means that personnel will be laid off for 19-20 days over the two months.
Union leaders say, however, that they are more concerned about prospects for the period after April, for which they say visibility is currently zero.
They have called on the company to finalise terms for the two MSC Cruises ships as quickly as possible and on the government to confirm an expected order for the construction of the hull of a naval projection and command vessel in partnership with French naval shipbuilder DCNS.
The yard currently has three cruise ships under construction but the first, the 1,637?cabin MSC Splendida, sister ship of the recently delivered MSC Fantasia, is due for delivery in June.
A smaller vessel, the 1,275-cabin MSC Magnifica, is scheduled for delivery in March next year, followed in May by the remaining NCL Freestyle 3 vessel.
MSC had announced plans to build two more 1,275-cabin vessels for delivery in 2011 and 2012 for a reported ?800m ($1.1bn) but said last month that it wanted to renegotiate the price for the two vessels in the current economic context.
The unions are pressing for a diversification of the yard"s activity to include naval vessels.
This prospect looks likely to be facilitated by the expected appointment this week of Patrick Boissier, former head of Alstom Marine, as STX France was called prior to its successive takeovers by Aker Yards and STX, as chairman and chief executive of DCNS.
Mr Boissier, who is being strongly tipped to replace the retiring head of DCNS, Jean-Marie Poimboeuf, was an ardent champion of merger between DCNS and Alstom Marine during his time in charge of the Saint Nazaire yard.
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