Damen Naval looks back on an eventful year with substantially higher turnover and modest profit

Damen Naval has had a good year. Turnover rose sharply in 2021, while the company made a modest profit. Compared to 2020, turnover increased from 250 million euros to approximately 420 million euros and the growth in turnover is set to continue this year. This is mainly due to the exceptionally large project in Germany: the construction of the four F126-class frigates. “You can safely say that this is an extraordinary project,” says Managing Director Hein van Ameijden. “It is also the largest contract the German Navy has ever awarded.”

Engineering for the F126 project was running at full speed in 2021 and, according to the Managing Director, this will continue for some time in 2022. 2021 was an eventful year, also because of Covid. They also noticed this at Damen Naval. “I think what we missed most was the personal, physical contact with the customers,” says Hein. “That contact is so important in our business, especially for the people from sales, but it has suffered greatly under Covid, for example because of the cancellation of international expos and trade fairs where we normally always show our face.”

But in the meantime, there was plenty to do. “The F126 project is right on schedule, with everyone is working really hard on it, and I am enormously proud of their great commitment. Creating the necessary ICT facilities is a huge challenge, but in the meantime the cooperation with the customer is always excellent, despite the fact that it also suffers from the lack of physical contact.”

Last year, Damen Naval managed to quickly increase the number of employees to 600. A few years ago it was 450. “Somehow we are better at gaining the interest of qualified personnel from the Randstad area in a job with our company than a few years ago. There is also a striking number of people with ‘Zeeland roots’. Perhaps this is partly due to the drop in demand from other industries as a result of Covid in combination with the success of our German contract. That success has not gone unnoticed and there are apparently many specialists who also want to taste it. We also welcome more and more foreigners. For them it does not make much difference whether they move from, for instance, Madrid to Delft, or to Vlissingen. It’s also nice that we are getting more and more female engineers.”

In 2022, Damen Naval hopes to be able to hire an additional 100 people. “Finding suitable colleagues with knowledge of combat systems is especially challenging.”

There was a large order intake in 2021. Just before Christmas, Damen Naval signed the contract with Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO) for the midlife update (MLU) of the Royal Netherlands Navy amphibious transport ship HNLMS Johan de Witt. This Damen Naval-built ship will be towed to Vlissingen-Oost early next month, where it will be moored at quay-E to undergo the MLU. The MLU is a joint project of Damen Naval, Damen Shiprepair Vlissingen and RH Marine. The naval vessel, which was commissioned in 2007, will undergo major technical modernisation, says Hein. “The command centre, for example, will be completely renewed. Accommodation and facilities have already been built on the quayside to facilitate this major job. This includes office space for our client and for our project team, laundry and changing rooms, etc.”

Hein is extremely proud of the completion of the Australian icebreaker Nuyina, which was completed in Vlissingen last year and has already embarked on its first mission to the Antarctic. “A spectacular ship; amazing what it can do. A ship that in some ways resembles a warship, but at the same time has so many other facets. An enormously advanced and complex ship that we can all be incredibly proud of.”

A few other achievements:
“Within the framework of the ILS for the Indonesian frigates, the weaponry was installed on the PKR frigates during the ‘Fitted For But Not With’ project. A separate contract was signed for this. The crew training that was also part of this project unfortunately had to be postponed because of Covid. For us a last percent of the job, but extremely annoying for the customer.”

“The landing craft LST 100 for the Nigerian Navy is ready and is currently undergoing sea trials in the Arabian Gulf, and in our Schiedam office a joint team from DMO and Damen Naval has started work on the definition phase of the ASWF project, the imminent replacement of the four M-frigates of the Netherlands and Belgium. We expect the official construction contract for this important project to be awarded in early 2023.”

For the replacement of the Dutch Walrus-class submarines, Damen Naval, together with partner Saab, is still in the competitive dialogue, says Hein. “There are still three candidates for this order; regarding further decision-making, the ball is now in the politicians’ court.”

Hein looks optimistically at the future of Damen Naval. “The prospects are good. We have been making a profit for twenty years, even in the years when we had to survive mainly on export orders. As a proportion of turnover, our profit will probably drop slightly in 2022. This has to do with the F126 project, of which we are the main contractor, but in which two major co-makers – Blohm+Voss and Thales – are also involved. Damen Naval cannot claim any profit on the turnover that they generate together. But all in all, our company, and for that matter the entire European naval architecture sector, is doing very well. Years of cuts are now being made up for.”