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Waren (dpa) - The corona crisis has brought the ship propeller manufacturer Mecklenburger Metallguss GmbH (MMG / Waren) a slight decline in sales - nevertheless, the foundry remains optimistic for 2021.

As MMG managing director Lars Greitsch told the German Press Agency, incoming orders are picking up again after several months of downturn.

"The shipowners got out of the crisis quickly."

The second corona wave will not have the same negative effects as the first wave in spring 2020.

MMG is considered the world market leader for the casting of particularly large propellers with a diameter of more than ten meters.

The turnover of the foundry with 170 employees was around 39 million euros in 2019, and Greitsch expects 36 million euros for 2020.

"In fact, shipbuilding has not yet recovered properly since the financial crisis in 2008," explained the plant manager.

The traditional foundry of Waren, which had already achieved annual sales of around 80 million euros, had to deal with "leaner cost structures" for years.

This also included an agreement with IG Metall in 2018, when 30 jobs were cut.

"That also helped us in the Corona situation," said the second managing director Katrin Beuster.

Since the end of May, some of the employees have been on short-time work, alternating between “10 and 30 percent per employee,” said Beuster.

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There were no incoming orders at all from April to July.

Unsettled shipowners postponed projects.

"Fortunately there were no cancellations," said Greitsch.

But since August the tide has been turning again: "We are on schedule".

The transport volume is increasing again worldwide and stricter environmental regulations are taking effect.

Under the motto “Retro Fit”, the Waren-based company has developed a technology in which running container ships are equipped with much more effective propellers.

According to surveys, around 850 ships worldwide with more than 3,000 parking spaces are eligible for this - MMG has already renewed around 400 of them.

In addition, the foundries have modernized their processes.

A large 3-D printer was developed that prints plastic cast models much faster than they were previously made.

In addition, a welding robot has been developed that produces raw smaller propellers immediately after computer modeling.

MMG produces such propellers for pumps in hydropower plants.

Another field of orders are sickle-shaped pump impellers with a diameter of up to four meters, which are used, for example, in a dike system on the IJsselmeer in Holland.

"The shipowners have learned to deal with Corona," is Greitsch's motto.

But there will probably be a full recovery in the construction of new ships in 2023 at the earliest.

In the Corona crisis, the manager would like politics to show more consideration for people who still want and have to go about their work.

Sales people should be allowed to travel to Asia again without the threat of sanctions.

That is more important than free tests for travelers returning home.

“I can't get a really binding conversation with some customers in video conferences, but only directly,” is an experience.

And at home the concerns of the workers should be more in focus: "Smelter cannot work from home."

That affects about 60 percent of the MMG people.