New Szczecin Shipyard slowly returns to normality

Today the first completed ship of the New Szczecin Shipyard will leave for a trial cruise after the enterprise was restructured following the bankruptcy of the original Szczecin Shipyard. The Industrial Development Agency presented a timetable for completing the ships currently under construction. The schedule envisages three stages. The first one is to finish the ships with new bank guarantees and to employ 3,500 from the old shipyard. The second stage will give the enterprise the capacity to produce new ships that have been ordered, as well as to increase employment to 5,500. The final goal, to be achieved in 2004, assumes that the yard will be strong enough to take on new contracts and build 10 to 12 ships a year. "The final details of financing seven ships are being discussed. Currently the New Szczecin Shipyard has 1,000 employees who are working on four ships, said company president Andrzej Stachura (Prawo i Gospodarka, p. 3) P.W.