Pessimism is growing over the outcome of the third auction for sale en bloc of the entire package of movable and functional immovable property to the shipbuilding activity of the shipbuilding plant Romanian Santierul Naval Mangalia, which is scheduled for the next August 28, given that it will come just a month from a second auction that went deserted and two months after a first auction which was also concluded without the submission of tenders despite the Rheinmetall - Mediterranean Shipping Company has expressed interest in the acquisition of the shipyard.

Rheinmetall's official press release about its interest and that of the Swiss shipping group MSC for Santierul Naval Mangalia, released a week after the declaration of bankruptcy of the construction site issued last April 28 by the Court of Costanza, had kindled hopes of a continuation of the activity of the Romanian plant as the German company had envisaged "the possibility of carrying out large investments in the site and to transform the shipyard into a dual-use for both military and civilian shipbuilding".

Hopes that were also fueled by the financial bond that the Düsseldorf-based company has with the Bucharest government. The Romanian Ministry of Defense, in fact, has signed with NVL B.V. & Co. KG, which is the naval systems division of the Rheinmetall, a 920 million euro contract, financed through the European SAFE programme, for the construction of four military patrol ships. Despite this link, however, Rheinmetall did not show up at the premiere or at the second auction, fueling doubts about the real intentions of the group. In addition, in a conference call on the results quarterly reports of the group, Rheinmetall executives stated that The construction site "is too big" and that the group German is not interested in taking it over in full.

The Romanian Minister of Defense, Radu-Dinel Miruta, himself assumed that the German company aims rather to acquire the lower liquidation value rather than the market price set by creditors. The gap between the two figures, in fact, are large: the selling price for six rounds approved by creditors, including the main is the Dutch group Damen Shipyards, is a 184 million euros, before eventually falling towards a which is estimated at around 84 million euros.

The third auction on August 28 is expected as a new test: if even if this were to end without offers, the creditors will have to decide whether to continue until the sixth round at full price or accelerate towards asset depreciation.

Also on the table is the hypothesis, discussed by the government of Bucharest, of a direct intervention of the State through an expropriation of the site to ensure its continuity as a strategic infrastructure. On the political-strategic level, the Pressure for a solution remains high: the program calendar SAFE (deliveries from 2028, completion 2030) is hardly compatible with further months of stalemate, and the Romanian government finds himself having to reconcile the rules of bankruptcy proceedings with the urgency of maintaining a military shipbuilding capacity on the Black Sea. On the social level, more than a thousand workers remain unemployed, with arrears of payments still pending regularization by the Ministry of Labour, in a territory, that of Costanza, strongly dependent on related industries naval level.

According to Romanian economic observers, the most It is likely that the outcome will depend to a large extent by Bucharest's political will to force a solution, through a direct agreement with Rheinmetall-MSC on more favourable to the buyer, or through state intervention rather than by the mechanism of the competitive in itself, which has so far attracted no bidders at the asking price.