German shipbuilding association VSM has laid into a government bid to save local shipyard Meyer Weft at TradeWinds Shipowners Forum at SMM, Hamburg, Germany.

Reinhard Luken, managing director of VSM, viewed the German government’s last-ditch attempt as more reactionary than assessing the longer-term issues it said needed to be addressed in the country.

Luken said: “Everybody understands that [Meyer Weft] is of strategic importance, but then when it comes to action on adopting measures that would really make a difference, we are moving like a snail, ie really, really slowly.”