TKMS set with orders till 2040s with €18B backlog

Graphic rendering of an artist’s impression of the Type 212CD submarine | Image: TKMS

German submarine maker Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) sees backlog soar to €18 billion with record orders, keeping the Kiel-based group busy into the 2040s.

Kiel, Germany: “We achieved great successes in the first half of the year and recorded a record-level order backlog of over €16 billion ($18 billion),” said chief executive Oliver Burkhard.

In the first half of the 2024/2025 financial year, which runs until the end of September, the shipyard received orders worth nearly €5.6 billion, compared to €669 million in the same period last year.

At the end of the 2023/2024 financial year, the order backlog stood at €11.7 billion, but the figure has now risen to €18 billion, Burkhard said.

In early May, it was announced that Singapore had ordered two additional 70-metre-long submarines in northern Germany.

The submarines will be built at the TKMS shipyard in Wismar, rather than at the company’s headquarters in Kiel, where the first units for Singapore were constructed.

In December, the German parliament’s budget committee approved the construction of four additional modern Class 212CD submarines for the German Navy.

Graphic rendering of an artist’s impression of the Type 212CD submarine | Image: TKMS

Editor’s Note: The CD stands for ‘Common Design’. The Type 212CD is based on the older Type 212 submarines but planned to be much larger than the 1,500 ton, 57 metre-long submarines. Both Germany and Norway have ordered six Type 212CD submarines, each. Also worth noting, the submarines are designed, like earlier models, as per German Navy requirements to be able to operate submerged in a particularly shallow area of the Baltic Sea between Germany and Denmark known as the Kadetrinne.

“Both the order expansion under the 212CD program and our order for the new (research icebreaker for the Alfred Wegener Institute) Polarstern underscore our position as a Maritime Powerhouse – as a systems provider to the maritime defense industry. The recent signing of the contract for the follow-up order of two submarines for Singapore has contributed to our order book currently rising to around €18 billion. This strong performance gives us momentum for the planned spin-off of Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems,” said Burkhard in a company statement.

The order volume for the German units alone amounts to €4.7 billion.

TKMS is one of the world’s leading companies in the marine industry, employing around 8,000 people across three shipyards in Kiel, Wismar and Itajaí (Brazil).