Rheinmetall buys Romania's Mangalia shipyard for €138m at the fifth auction

Germany's Rheinmetall has bought the bankrupt shipyard at Mangalia on Romania's Black Sea coast for €138.03m excluding VAT, the court-appointed liquidator CITR announced on Friday 9 October. The winning bidder was Rheinmetall Real Estate Romania SRL. The price is 75% of the €184m market value at which the yard had been offered in four earlier auctions, none of which attracted a bidder.

The sale covers the yard as a going concern: the real estate and the movable assets needed to continue operations, but not receivables or shareholdings. The liquidation value had been put at about €85m and the yard's disputed debts at about €190m. Romania's defence minister, Radu Miruță, who handled the file earlier as economy minister, said the yard was "officially saved" and that the first offer he had received for it was about €10m, which he rejected.

What will Rheinmetall build there?

Rheinmetall won a contract worth about €920m in May under the European Union's Security Action for Europe programme to build four ships for the Romanian Navy: two offshore patrol vessels and two support vessels. Miruță said they would be built at Mangalia by 2030 and that the yard would receive investment to modernise it. The group entered shipbuilding by buying Naval Vessels Lürssen in Germany, a deal completed in March 2026. When it confirmed its interest in Mangalia in May, Rheinmetall said it was discussing the takeover with MSC, which had proposed starting with ship repair and later building commercial ships, and that the yard could eventually employ several thousand people. The liquidator's announcement named only the Rheinmetall company as buyer.

The yard was founded by the Romanian state in 1976 and became a partnership with Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering in 1997. Damen took a 49% stake in a joint venture with the government in 2018. The relationship broke down after Romania changed its rules on company management in 2023, which Damen said breached the contract. Damen, the largest creditor, filed for insolvency in 2024, creditors rejected a reorganisation plan and the company was declared bankrupt on 28 April 2026.

More than 1,000 workers were laid off with compensation, and no hiring plan has been announced. In 2017 the yard reported revenue of 988 million lei and nearly 2,000 employees; at its peak it had more than 2,500.

This story is part of the Maritime Briefing of 12 October 2026.