France and Italy have struck a deal that will allow Italian firm Fincantieri to effectively take control of STX France, a strategic French shipyard, ending a dispute that had soured relations between Paris and Rome.
French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking alongside Italian Premier Paolo Gentiloni in the French city of Lyon, called the agreement creating a European naval industry behemoth a "win-win deal." The agreement appears to mark the end to a sometimes bitter row over the ownership of the shipyards.
France angered Italy in July by ordering a "temporary" nationalization of STX, cancelling a deal in which Fincantieri and another Italian investor had agreed to buy 55 percent of the firm, based in Saint-Nazaire in western France.
Creating European champions?
On the back of Wednesday's deal, which will see Fincantieri effectively holding a 51 percent stake in STX France, Paris and Rome will explore the creation of a Franco-Italian naval defense group, merging French military shipyards company Naval Group with Fincantieri, Macron's office said.
The two countries hope outlines of that deal can be struck by June 2018, creating a pan-European naval defense champion akin to the combined rail engineering group created on Tuesday via the near 50/50 tie-up between the rail businesses of France's Alstom and Germany's Siemens.
While Macron, who took office barely five months ago, initially appeared determined to protect French strategic assets at all costs, the deals between Alstom and Siemens, and now Fincantieri and STX, suggest he is willing to see French control diluted if it opens the way for a bigger European champion.
The biggest container ships in the world
Ship owners from all over the world are competing for the glory of building the most outstanding vessels plowing the oceans. In this race not only size matters, but technology, too.
Image: Reuters/F. Bimmer
A new world record
The largest container ship in the world entered the German port of Wilhelmshaven on Sunday July 2. The MV "OOCL Hong Kong" is 400 meters long and has 21,413 pitches for standard containers. It was built in the Samsung ship yard in South Korea. Before the stop in Germany, the ship, on its maiden voyage, has already stopped in Felixstowe, England and the Polish city of Gdansk.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/I. Wagner
The size of the Empire State Building
The world's second largest container ship has made its way up the Elbe River to become the biggest-ever vessel to call at Hamburg harbor. With a length of 400 meters (1,320 ft) it would normally carry 20,170 containers - but that number had to be reduced because the river is not deep enough. Japanese shipping firm Mitsui O.S.K wants to employ it regularly on routes between Europe and East Asia.
Never-ending race?
MOL Triumph, alongside the world's largest container ship, Madrid Maersk, will soon be replaced by OOCL Hong Kong in terms of capacity because the new cargo giant can load 21.100 standard containers. A quarter century ago, the biggest cargo ships could load only slightly more than 4,000 containers, and were easily outstripped by supertankers which remain the biggest vessels ever built.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Warmuth
Too large to fit
With a length of 458 meters, Norwegian oil tanker Jahre Viking was the largest ship ever built. She needed more than six kilometers (3.72 miles) to stop, and was unable to navigate the Panama Canal, the Suez Canal and the English Channel. Between 2004 and 2009, she was used as a floating storage for oil before being sold to Indian ship breakers and breached for scrapping in Gujarat.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/DPA Report
Small city on the water
The biggest cruise ship is the Harmony of the Seas, at a length of 362 meters. More than 6,300 passengers can enjoy their time on 16 decks, while being served by a crew of 2.100. Royal Caribbean Cruises paid more than one billion euros (($1.08 billion) for her, equipping it with 20 dining rooms, 23 swimming pools - including the longest water slide - and an open air garden with 12,000 plants.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/F. Dubray
The 'toys' of the super-rich
Rivalry among ship owners seems fiercest in the super-yacht category, where Arab sheiks, Russian oligarchs and US billionaires dig deep - not shy to splash out on costly extensions even during construction to outbid others in the race for luxury. Momentarily, the "toy" of a Saudi sheikh holds the title. His 180-meter yacht named Azzam is equipped with helideck, missile defense and submarine.
Image: Imago/TheYachtPhoto.com
'Sailing boat' for the romatic
The world's biggest yacht under sails is called "Sailing Yacht A" and the creation of designer Philippe Starck. She is owned by Russian billionaire Andrey Melnitchenko. The total sail area of 3,747 square metres is equal to the size of half a football pitch, She has eight decks with three swimming pools and an underwater observation pod in the keel.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Heimken
The most expensive is for combat
The Gerald R. Ford is the lead ship of a new class of United States Navy supercarriers and was commissioned in April 2017.The US military has spent about $13 billion for the aircarft carrier which belongs to a fleet of currently 18 classical carriers. She is able to launch Navy jet fighters faster and more efficiently due to an electromagnetic catapult instead of a steam-driven one.
Image: Imago/Zumapress/C. Delano
Russian trailblazer
Three-meters-thick Arctic ice fields? No problem for Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker Arktika. According to Russian media, it's the most powerful vessel of its kind and scheduled to be commissioned by the end of the 2017. Then it will be deployed to the Arctic oil and gas fields to blaze the trail for Russian tankers. Russia wants to build several more of these ships in the years to come.
Image: picture alliance / dpa
Slow muscle man
Thialf is the world's most powerful deepwater construction vessel. She is capable of a tandem lift of 14,200 tons and used for installing offshore constructions. For lifting operations it will normally be ballasted down to 26.6 m (87 ft). This way the pontoons, with a draught of 13.6 metres, are well submerged to reduce the effect of waves. It is strong but slow with a speed of only 11 km/h.
Image: BoH/GPL
Piggyback on the sea
Floating oil rigs (see picture) or even whole ships can be moved by the Dockwise Vanguard. The heavy lift ship sinks into the water, towboats drag the load over the charging platform and then the ship lifts herself up again. The world biggest transportation ship is 275 meters long.
Image: Boskalis
Explorers of the unknown deepwater
Canadian film director James Cameron dived with the Deepsea Challenger to the deepest point of the world's oceans known as Challenger Deep and located at 10.984 meters on the bed of the Pacific. The submarine was constructed in secrecy in Australia from 2005 to 2012. Passengers shouldn't panic in closed rooms because they sit in a high-strengh steel-ball only 106 centimeters in diameter.
Image: REUTERS
Human beings are not needed
Size is not everything! The ships of the future might be electrically-driven and without any crew. Norway will start the first experiment with a self-driving e-container ship next year. The Yara Birkland will ship fertilizer along the coast of Norway - first with a captain on the helm, and from 2019 remote-controlled. In 2020, the ship will travel autonomously, likely to become a "game changer."
Image: Yara International
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Special rights
Under the terms of Wednesday's agreement, Fincantieri will take a 50 percent stake in STX. The French state will hold 34.34 percent, Naval Group 10 percent, STX staff 2 percent and STX local suppliers 3.66 percent. In order for Fincantieri to take effective control, the French state will lend it a one percent stake. Paris will have the right to demand the holding back if Fincantieri does not honor commitments on jobs, governance or intellectual property.
Fincantieri has committed to maintaining the shipyard's research and development division in France; to not transferring know-how or intellectual property outside Europe; to granting France a right of veto over the future name of the STX company; and to giving the
French special rights related to the military activity of STX.
STX is the only shipyard in France where it is possible to build a possible second aircraft carrier and large warships. Last year, it turned out the world's largest cruise ship, the Harmony of the Seas, and earlier created the Queen Mary II.
France will pay particular attention to Fincantieri's compliance with the rules of governance, the level of investment, the preservation of jobs on French soil, the activity of the local French subcontractors and the fair treatment between France and Italy, depending on the development of the future group, the French presidency said.
The two countries on Wednesday also recommitted themselves to an ambitious rail link under the Alps, with both Macron and Gentiloni stressing its "strategic importance." The core of the 270-kilometer (167 mile) high-speed line, linking France's third-largest city and Italy's fourth, is a 57-kilometer tunnel under the Alps.
In July, the French government signaled its intention to pause the project, whose cost is estimated at more than €25 billion ($29.37 billion), pending a review of France's overall infrastructure plans.
