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Since last year, Damen Shipyards Group has been divided into six divisions, including Damen Naval. We will be taking an introductory tour of the companies within this division. In the third instalment, we present a portrait of the MEGA engineering office in Galati, Romania, which was established in 2004 by the then Damen Schelde.
For seventeen years, the engineers of MEGA in Galati have been doing design work for the shipbuilding projects of Damen Naval. The Romanian engineering company, a full subsidiary of Damen Naval, provided the detail engineering for HNLMS Karel Doorman and the icebreaker RSV Nuyina, to name but a few high-profile vessels. Now they are working on the construction drawings for the newest acquisition of the Royal Netherlands Navy, the Combat Support Ship Den Helder. Starting with a modest office with only six employees, MEGA now has 150 employees. And the growth continues…
Jean-Paul Claassen, MT member of Damen Naval.
“We are actually still looking for additional space,” says Jean-Paul Claassen, MT member of Damen Naval, who is on the board of MEGA together with Willem Jan Moens. “We are going to expand in manpower and then it is obvious that we also need more space. The current office is already quite full.” Jean-Paul is very satisfied with MEGA’s performance over the years. “They are all professionals who work there,” he says. The engineering office is located within walking distance of the Damen shipyard in Galati, a city on the Danube with 211,000 inhabitants.
The engineers at MEGA – known in full as Marine Engineering Galati – take care of all the detailed engineering for the ships Damen Naval builds. This means that they develop the basic design into all kinds of production drawings for steelwork, outfitting etc. They also support the engineers in Vlissingen who make the basic designs. Where necessary, MEGA also provides the engineering for Integrated Logistic Support (ILS). This involves matters such as: spare parts, logistical analyses, technical documents and training.
The Romanian engineering firm is also an important partner of Damen Yachting in the construction of superyachts. They are currently working on the detailed engineering for a superyacht of no less than 120 metres long. And they regularly do jobs for other business units within the Damen Group. Florin Rascanu has been Managing Director of MEGA for fifteen years. “I joined the company in April 2006,” says Florin. “At that time MEGA had 22 employees. What started as just a group of people working for DSNS has developed step by step into a sizeable engineering firm with now 150 employees that in recent years has been allowed to work on very large projects for Damen.”
MEGA's team with Managing Director Florin Rascanu in the centre of the front row.
“We have really become a big company. I am a modest man, but I think I can say that I built the company, of course together with my team in Galati and with the support of the parent company Damen Naval. In a way, MEGA is my baby,” Florin laughs. MEGA was founded in 2004 by the then Damen Schelde, four years after Damen took over the Schelde shipyard. It was the period when Damen started shipbuilding in Romania. “We needed people who were on top of the construction and who could also answer questions from the yard in Galati about the drawings, but who could also make drawings themselves,” Jean-Paul recalls of those early days.
In recent years, MEGA has provided the detailed engineering for projects including the 205-metre long and 30-metre wide Joint Support Ship HNLMS Karel Doorman (the largest ship in the Dutch Navy), the 160-metre long and 25-metre wide RSV Nuyina, and four patrol vessels for the Royal Netherlands Navy; all projects that were huge in scale. “In the thirty-five years that I have been in shipbuilding, I have never done design work for such a complex vessel as for the icebreaker Nuyina,” says Florin with pride.
“We are completely booked up until at least 2024, so the future looks bright for our company. We are especially proud to be a reliable partner of Damen." Florin Rascanu
The Antarctic Supply Research Vessel, as it is fully known, was almost entirely built at Damen Shipyards Galati, which is a stone’s throw from the office where the MEGA people work. The finishing of the Nuyina took place in Vlissingen-Oost. The HNLMS Karel Doorman was partly built at Damen’s Romanian shipyard and of the four patrol vessels, two were built entirely in Galati. At the moment, they are working hard at MEGA on the detailed engineering for the 180-metre long and 26-metre wide Combat Support Ship Den Helder, which Damen Naval is building for the Royal Netherlands Navy.
MEGA Managing Director Florin Rascanu.
“We are completely booked up until at least 2024,” says Florin. “So the future looks bright for our company.” Florin says he is especially proud to be a reliable partner of Damen. “I think that is partly due to a number of success factors. We work with a team that communicates very well with each other, and our customers are generally very satisfied with our project management procedures and the excellent quality of the documentation we provide. We are also very flexible and can do the design for a wide variety of vessel types.”
“And at MEGA there is a good balance between the somewhat older employees and the younger ones. The older ones have enormous expertise, while the younger ones are still developing theirs, but in the meantime are very skilled on the computer. In this way, both groups can still teach each other a thing or two. In short, we are a mature, competitive and highly motivated group of people. I personally feel very connected to the company and the colleagues.”
The engineers at MEGA take care of all the detailed engineering for the ships Damen Naval builds.
Jean-Paul praises the cooperation between the engineers in Vlissingen and those in Galati. “I am very pleased that it is so good and intensive,” he says. “You really notice that they work together as a team and are united in the knowledge that they need each other to make our projects successful.” Galati is a large city with its own university. Many of MEGA’s employees come from this university. Jean-Paul: “When I joined the board in 2009, there were 50 to 60 people working at MEGA. We now want to increase the current group of 150 people further.”
“That has everything to do with the workload. The basic engineers in Vlissingen are getting busier and so, logically, they will also get busier in Galati.” As a member of the board, Jean-Paul has to oversee how everything goes at the MEGA office in Romania. “Florin and I meet regularly through Teams and I visit MEGA three to four times a year. Florin also comes to Vlissingen a few times a year. We have excellent contact.”