This latest initiative was announced by Magdalena Smółka, receiver of the SMW yard, in a bid to restructure the business. “We have undertaken these efforts to be able to provide such services without unnecessary delay if we determine that there is a big demand for [ship-breaking services],” she told local daily Dziennik Bałtycki.

The receiver said that the shipyard is currently applying for various business licences to widen the range of marine services it is providing to customers.

Set up in May 1922 and headquartered in Gdynia, SMW is the country’s oldest operating shipyard. The company is owned by the Polish Treasury, and due to its continuing financial woes it filed for bankruptcy in 2009. Despite this, the shipyard is currently working on a number of shipbuilding and repair contracts.

In September 2013, Poland’s Ministry of Defence awarded an order for three new mine destroyers and one patrol vessel to a consortium led by two Polish shipyards, SMW and Remontowa Shipbuilding in Gdańsk. The ships are scheduled to be completed in 2016.