Country’s largest shipyard will be shut down by 2012, leaving about 2,500 employees without work

A.P. Moller-Maersk has decided to close Lindø Shipyard at Munkebo on Funen.

Lindø had been losing hundreds of millions of kroner over the past several years, according to Maersk management which hinted at the closure late last year. The first 175 workers are expected to be let go already by the end of this month.

Maersk’s owner, the 96-year-old Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller who has watched the shipyard develop since its inception in 1917, reluctantly approved the closure.

‘It’s a sad day, and very sad for me personally,’ said Denmark’s wealthiest man. ‘Unfortunately there’s no other way to go.’

Since posting a profit in 2003, the business has lost about 3 billion kroner in the last five years. In 2006, Lindø employees built the world’s largest container ship, the Emma Mærsk, which has a capacity of 15,200 containers.

Some experts have suggested Møller kept the shipyard open out of sentimentality despite the heavy losses.

Villy Søvndal, head of the Socialist People’s Party, expressed his hope that some of the jobs could be saved by allowing wind turbines to be produced at the yard. Skykon is reportedly willing to do just that, but those efforts are only in the negotiation stage at this point.

Both Business Minister Lene Espersen and Employment Minister Inger Støjberg have indicated the government will try and provide some form of help to the workers let go by the closure.