VOSTA LMG: 140 Years of Lübecker Maschinenbaugesellschaft (Germany)

“On April 10th, 2013 we proudly looked back on the 140th company anniversary of Lübecker Maschinenbaugesellschaft – LMG- and its succeeding companies,” announced VOSTA LMG.

LMG history up to today

Its foundation took place in a time in which industrialization started in the Hanseatic City of Lübeck and initiated- following the development like in the most other western-European countries- the industrial revolution which started in England mid 19th century. 140 years LMG span the phase of the first modest preindustrial manufacturing engineering up to the present highly developed economic system.

Accordingly, the current LMG looks back on an eventful history.

The newspaper Lübeckische Anzeigen” announced on April 12, 1873, the entry of the Lübecker Maschinenbaugesellschaft in the Commercial Registry on April 10, 1873. At At the beginning of the 1880s they began with the construction of floating dredgers and excavaters and barges. The products manufactured by LMG were considered to be of good quality and were above all for large canals in use.

In 1911 Benno Orenstein took over the majority of shares and they began to entry into the shipbuilding industry in 1917. The freighter “Ina Blumenthal” was the first new vessel which was delivered to JMK Blumenthal, a shipping company in Hamburg on 14 June 1921. Thirteen years later they constructed the first bucket wheel excavator for lignite exploitation. From December 1950 the Lübeck Works were renamed to “Orenstein- Koppel and engineering Lübeck AG”. In the 1960s there were further innovative developments, such as a multi-purpose bulk carrier and the “Tornado transverse thruster” to improve the maneuverability of ships, until they began with the construction of deck cranes in 1965. After renaming the work in “Orenstein & Koppel AG” with the subtitle “work Lubeck” in 1969, within the next twenty years further milestones in shipbuilding could be achieved, for example the currently largest bucket wheel excavator in the world with an operating weight of 13,000 t and the largest cutter suction dredger in the world at that time (Bilberg I).Surprisingly the shipbuilding production with O & K came to an end in 1987. In 1992, the Lübeck Works was remaned in O & K Anlagen + Systeme GmbH and is run as a separate company since that time.

As the fusion of Krupp with Hoesch – the main shareholder of O & K – took place, the owner of Lübecks Works changed and renamed as “Krupp Fördertechnik” at 01.05.1993. 1997 Krupp merged with Thyssen and the company operated under the name ThyssenKrupp.

In 1999 the largest hopper dredger named “Vasco da Gama” with 30,000 m³ of cargo space, which was designed in Lübeck, was launched at ThyssenKrupp shipyard in Emden. n the same year Krupp Fördertechnik stopped its construction of excavators. In spring 2000, ThyssenKrupp “sold” Lübeck Works for a symbolic amount to the Hamburg investment company NordGB. Lübeck Works continued to operate under the name “LMG”, however, was divided in two parts, the “Light Machine Industrial Services” and the “LMG Marine Technology”.

End of January 2002, the “Marine Technology” part of the company divided of the LMG and joined together with the VOSTA BV in Amsterdam on 01.02.2002, which was also sold by Krupp to the NordGB, for VOSTA LMG. The products of both locations,merely dredging technology, complemented perfectly.

The LMG later on sold the construction of deck cranes to the Norwegian company TTS. After several difficult years and two more insolvencies the “LMG Industrial Services” was acquired by “KGW Schweriner Maschinen- und Anlagenbau” belonging to Wilms Group, and currently operates under the name “LMG Maschinen- und Anlagenbau”.

Current situation

VOSTA LMG in Lübeck, which is today located in the downtown LindenArcarden, realized several major projects especially after 2005. Mid-December 2012 the CEO Rudolf Dietze sold the VOSTA LMG Group – including locations in Amsterdam and Lübeck – and all foreign subsidiaries to the ASL Group in Singapore. The new managing directors Mr. K.T. Ang, Mr. K.W. Yuen and Mrs. I. Ang intention is to continue the business of the company without changes.

VOSTA LMG confidently looks ahead. With new owners being financially strong and highly motivated personnel the importance of VOSTA LMG within the market of dredging technology certainly will be re- established.

To mark the 140 years anniversary, the new management of VOSTA LMG presents a reasonable amount to the museum port to support the preservation of the bucket chain dredger “Wels”, built by LMG.

[mappress]

Press Release, May 7, 2013