Kockums

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Kockums in Malmö, 1975
Photo: Pål-Nils Nilsson. (image used as fair use)

Kockums AB is a shipyard in Malmö, Sweden owned by the German shipyard HDW in Kiel. HDW itself is a subsidiary of the German ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems.

The shipyard formerly possessed a 138 metre high crane, known as the Kockums Crane, built in 1973/1974 and capable of lifting 1500 tons but never used much because of the Swedish shipyard crisis of the late 1970s and 1980s. It was used the last time in 1997 for lifting the fundaments of the high pillars of the Oresund Bridge.

The crane was sold the first time in the early 1990s to the Danish company Burmeister & Wain, but the company went bankrupt shortly thereafter. It was later sold to Korean company Hyundai Heavy Industries. The crane was a landmark of Malmö from its time of construction until its dismantling to be shipped to Ulsan in South Korea in summer 2002.

Kockums worked with Northrop Grumman and Howaldtswerke Deutsche Werft AG (HDW) to offer a Visby class corvette derivative in the American Focused Mission Vessel Study, a precursor to the Littoral Combat Ship program. It competed with several other concepts including Norway's Skjold class (part of a Raytheon led group).