Crisis of confidence begins to loom over Gdynia Shipyard

Gdansk-based computer company Pretor has filed a petition for bankruptcy of Gdynia Shipyard (SG). There is a creeping possibility that SG could, like the Szczecin shipyard, go under. For the past six months SG has been fighting off an ever more powerful tide of claims which threaten to drown it. The shipyard maintains it has nothing to fear, as its main contractors admit nobody would benefit if SG was declared bankrupt. Pretor's chairman Jacek Stankiewicz, refused to comment on the issue. Shipyard chairman Janusz Szlanta sees it as a psychological tactic. "I don't know anything about the issue. I am not sure whether this company is our supplier. I can only assume it is a form of putting pressure on us in our current difficult situation." Industry Development Agency (ARP) chief, Arkadiusz Krezel, told journalists, "I do not believe the shipyard will go bankrupt." According to Alstom, one of SG's biggest suppliers, other petitions could possibly appear as contractors become increasingly impatient. (Puls Biznesu, pp.1, 2, 4) M.T.