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Schwerin (dpa / mv) - The assumption of loan guarantees for shipbuilding financing has earned the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania fees in the past two decades, but the bottom line is that it remained a negative business.
As can be seen from the response of the state government to a small request from the left-wing parliamentary group, the state guaranteed shipyard loans totaling 1.16 billion euros from 2001 to 2019.
As a result of the bankruptcy of the P + S shipyards in Stralsund and Wolgast at the end of 2012, the country was obliged by the banks to pay almost 200 million euros.
In addition, the shipyard group did not repay direct loans amounting to 113 million euros to the country.
According to government information, around 28 million euros flowed into the state treasury in terms of guarantee and loan fees.
Left-wing MP Jeannine Rösler warned not to demonize the instrument of state guarantees.
"It turns out that large guarantees can be a profitable business for the country if the companies do well," she explained.
In this way, large industrial orders could be secured in the country and jobs with good collective wages could be preserved.
Opportunities and risks would have to be weighed very carefully in each individual case.
Negotiations are currently underway on state guarantees for the MV shipyards belonging to the Asian multinational Genting Hong Kong.
Genting had bought the shipyards in Wismar, Rostock and Stralsund in 2016 in order to have cruise ships built there for their own needs and started doing so.
Due to the Corona crisis, however, the cruises broke down worldwide and thus one of the group's most important sources of income.
Therefore, the work was stopped.
The shipyards are to be kept afloat with the help of federal loan guarantees amounting to around 450 million euros.
But the aid is tied to conditions that Genting has not yet been able to meet.