Wilton-Fijenoord

The conglomerate squandered an enormous amount of government money on all kinds of projects, but failed to invest in modernizing its shipyards. Wilton-Fijenoord, got some breathing space when it got the order for the two Hai Lung-class submarines, which were laid down in December 1982.

In February 1983, RSV was granted an automatic stay. The government then urged for the dissolution of the company. Many daughter companies were confident that they could survived on their own feet. This also applied to Wilton-Fijenoord.

Wilton-Fijenoord independent again (1983-1999)

In early 1983, Wilton-Fijenoord, still part of RSV, had way too little work. RSV planned to fire hundreds of Wilton's workers. In February 1983, the government plans to disassemble RSV included that Wilton-Fijenoord would only repair ships and that RDM would only build ships. The Rotterdam municipality then tried to save ship repair activities at RDM, but Wilton-Fijenoord reacted by offering 12 million for RDM's dry docks. This offer was also driven by fear that Boele's shipyard would get its hands on those docks. The biggest of these was the a 45,000t floating dry dock that had been bought in Southampton just after World War II. It was said that this prevented the creation of a new RDM repair shipyard. In the end, the two biggest of these dry docks would not end up at Wilton-Fijenoord.

While Wilton-Fijenoord continued to be troubled by the automatic stay, there was a national row over the possibility to build more submarines for Taiwan. The government also continued to push for an end to all shipbuilding at Wilton-Fijenoord and wanted to force a take-over by Damen Shipyards. In the end it was the municipality of Schiedam that saved Wilton-Fijenoord. It bought the terrain of the shipyard for 42 million guilders and then leased it back to the company. It was June 1984 before the government finally provided a loan of 25 million so Wilton-Fijenoord could get out of the automatic stay. This loan had become necessary, because the RSV holding still owed 240 million to WF, most of it consisting of advances that had been paid to WF by the Taiwanese government.

Over the period from June 1984 to 31 December 1984, Wilton-Fijenoord made a profit of 7.1 million guilders. By then a time bomb was ticking because in 1986 and 1987, the two submarines would be delivered. In 1985, profit increased to 13.7 million guilders, as the ship repair part was doing very well. In 1986, revenue and net profit dropped sharply to 2.7 million ay a revenue of 271.5 million.

In 1987, Wilton-Fijenoord surprised the market by buying its old competitor Verolme Botlek as well as the smaller shipyard Vlaardingen Oost Bedrijven (VOB). The idea was that the smallest ships could be repaired at VOB, big ships up to 150,000dwt could be repaired at Wilton-Fijenoord, and ships of over 150,000dwt could be repaired at Verolme's mammoth dock. WF's worker's council agreed on condition that the new daughters would remain financially separate entities. At the end of 1987, it also became clear that there was no future for Wilton-Fijenoord in Shipbuilding. Of WF's 1,500 employees, the 550 that worked in building ships lost their job in early 1988. Wilton-Fijenoord closed its last year as a combined shipbuilding and ship repair yard with a loss of 16.8 million guilders, but this was caused by 35 million of reorganization costs.

In 1988, Wilton-Fijenoord and its daughter Verolme Botlek made a profit of 24.1 million. Meanwhile Vlaardingen Oost Bedrijven (VOB) went into bankruptcy and was acquired by Damen Shipyards in Gorinchem. In 1989, WF had 1,080 employees and profit increased to 39 million.

In Spring 1990, Wilton-Fijenoord announced that it wanted to get back into shipbuilding. This was also possible, because it had mothballed its construction shipyard. Already in October 1990, it became known WF was talking to Verolme Hesuden about a merger. By December, all parties involved agreed that Verolme Scheepswerf Heusden (VSH) would become the third daughter of the WF-Holding company. In 1990, the profit of WF Holding grew to 44 million, excluding the 6.6 million profit of VSH.

In 1991, it became clear that shipyards in the former East Germany and Poland were becoming very competitive, producing at about half the price of Wilton-Fijenoord. WF nevertheless still made a 20.8 million guilder profit. Over 1992, the profit of WF decreased to 10.1 million guilders.

In 1993 it became clear that WF was suffering from a bad global repair market, low wage competition from Poland and the Baltic, and subsidies in Germany. That year, WF made a loss of 7 million guilders. The core of WF's new problem was that it no longer got the major repair jobs that were crucial maintain a steady repair capability. In 1994 the loss increased to 25 million guilders. WF tried to change its business model, fired 251 employees and tried to reorient to the offshore industry. It did not suffice, and in October 1995 a plan was announced that would shrink the Schiedam shipyard from 440 to 300 employees. In the end, the loss over 1995 was 36 million. In 1996, this was only 0.9 million, but by then it was known that the holding would lose millions on the construction of WD Fairway at VSH. During 1997, the situation of WF-Holding became desperate because of the losses on WD Fairway and her sister Queen of the Netherlands.

By early 1998, WFH needed 40 million guilders to restore its capital. The situation was complicated because WFH was jointly liable for part of the debts of Verolme Heusden and Wilton-Fijenoord. In May 1998, RDM Technology holding bought WFH.

RDM Technology holding B.V. was owned by Joep van den Nieuwenhuyzen. He was primarily interested in Verolme Botlek. RDM paid one guilder for WFH, but had to put 40 million into the company as part of the sale. RDM said to already have an agreement with Yssel-Vliet-Combinatie (YVC) in Capelle aan den IJssel, to sell Wilton-Fijenoord to YVC as soon as the deal would be completed. Of the 40 million guilders that RDM paid, 20 million went to Verolme Botlek, obviously freeing it from the joint liability. The other half was put into a bank account that would be blocked until the debts of Verolme Heusden and Wilton-Fijenoord were settled.

The price for the sale of Wilton-Fijenoord to YVC would be about 10 million guilders, being the value of the grounds and buildings at Schiedam. The deal did not go smoothly, because by mid-November negotiations were still in progress. On 29 December 1998, the dissolution of WFH continued with the bankruptcy of Verolme Heusden.

Rotterdam United Shipyards (1999-2003)

In late January 1999, WFH finally sold Wilton-Fijenoord to Yssel-Vliet-Combinatie (YVC). The new name of the shipyard would be Rotterdam United Shipyards.

YVC soon got into trouble. In June 1999, it asked for an automatic stay for its YVC IJsselwerf in Capelle aan den IJssel and Groot-Ammers. Rotterdam United Shipyards and YVC Bolnes were not affected by this. In September, the IJsselwerf was bought by Van der Giessen de Noord.

Rotterdam United Shipyards did not succeed in becoming a profitable company. In March 2001, it cut 52 of the remaining 322 jobs. This measure soon proved inadequate and even more lay-offs were planned. In early October 2001, another round of lay-offs was to further reduce the number of employees from 270 to 169.

Also in 2001, the shipyard sold its 192 by 40 m drydock Dok 5 to the Sultan of Dubai. It was to lift the casco of his 162 by 22 m yacht Platinum. The whole would then be lifted by the MV Blue Marlin and brought to Dubai.

Back to normal productivity

It took some time for the ship repair activity at Wilton Fijenoord to get back to pre-war levels. In 1946 Wilton's dry docks served 97 ships. In early 1947, the 20,000 tons 'drydock 5' was fixed. In that year 166 ships were repaired in the dry docks, double the tonnage of the previous year. Wilton-Fijenoord hesitated about fixing the 46,000 tons drydock, as the cost were very high. In the end it decided to repair it, because WF expected ship size to further increase in the future. On 11 April 1950 Drydock 4 was repaired and taken into use again. In 1952, the tonnage of ships repaired matched that of 1938.

Meanwhile, the shipyard had to catch up with the advanced welding techniques that had revolutionized British and American shipbuilding. This allowed the shipyard to execute a lot of work in the welding halls instead of on the slipways.

On the Westkousdijk a gun factory had been created before the war. In cooperation with Bofors it now started the construction of armored double 15 cm turrets for the two De Zeven Provinciën-class cruisers, as well as armored 12 cm turrets for destroyers

The former Fijenoord terrain started a second youth when the foundry was modernized and a new model office was started.

In March 1946 a license agreement was signed with William Doxford & Sons to produce Doxford Diesel engines. In Schiedam a testbed was realized just in time to test the first Doxford engines in 1949.