Department of Economic Development and Real Estates - Industry

Today´ s Emden is a modern urban organism with an industrial accent. To the south, the picture of the town blends with harbour and industry scenery.
Emden’ s core function in the Lower Ems and East Frisian region is illustrated by the number of employees in the industrial sector per 1000 residents: In 2004 Emden accounts for 231 employees, the adjacent region of Aurich 24 employees per 1000 inhabitants. This underlines that Emden is located in an agriculture-oriented region, for which Emden at the same time plays the role of a working and industrial town. Of the estimated 26.000 employees in the East Frisian industry, 12.000 work in Emden.

The biggest employer of the region, Volkswagen AG - Werk Emden, for example, employs about 80% employees from East Frisia and 20% from Emden. Many of the other companies in the region are directly or indirectly tied to harbour traffic and shipping in Emden.
The seashore region of East Frisia with Emden being its economical centre still has a notable development gap compared to other regions. This is the result of the economical stagnation at the beginning of the 1990s flanked by heavy job losses and one of the highest unemployment rates in Lower Saxony. 
 
The Emden seaport is the westernmost German North Sea port, consisting of an inner and an outer port directly flanking the river Ems.
Quays spanning 9 km are equipped with 7 bridge cranes up to 80 tons tonnage as well as 7 Ro-Ro ramps. To crown it all there is also a container terminal and a free port.
Motor-vehicle handling plays a very important role in the field of part load goods. In 2004, export and import of the VW factory and other plants contributed to a turnover rate of 771.650 vehicles. Nowadays 30% of automobile handling passes via Emden.

The Autoport Emden GmbH has worldwide connections in the automobile handling sector. Numerous settlement areas - Emden being the third largest German North Sea port pertaining to area - are available on the fairway with depth to accommodate ocean going vessels.
 

Ship-building is a traditional branch in Emden. The big shipyard Nordseewerke GmbH is capable of building large vessels up to 120.000 Tdw. At present it numbers 1400 employees.
Shipyard and Machinery plant Cassens GmbH is another large shipyard in Emden with about 160 employees, producing new vessels up to 10000 tdw apart from carrying out repairs and dock work. These shipyards represent an essential factor in the economic life of the East Frisia. A number of smaller shipyards have made their name by building of special ships and have proved success in the international competition. 
 
 
The biggest employer is the Emden plant of Volkswagenwerk AG, the lead factory for the production of the “Passat” middle class cars, with about 10.000 employees and a daily output of more than 1.200 vehicles. For this reason, the factory is of paramount importance for Emden’ s labour market situation. There is also a number of medium-sized factories in the sectors of mechanical engineering, steel-construction, chemical-, building material- and food industry. Another local advantage concerning energy supply is a gas terminal, built in 1977, with desulphurisation system at the Rysumer Nacken, where a 440 km long gas pipeline, layed on the bottom of the sea, comes ashore from the Norwegian Ekofisk. Ekofisk raw gas is processed here and forwarded to the Ruhr district (Ruhrgas), to the Netherlands, Belgium and France. 15 Bln cbm North Sea gas are processed annually.
In spite of the fact that more than 60% of the large town region are still used for agricultural purposes, agriculture itself does not play much of a role as a line of business.

In the field of education, Emden –since 1974 location of an University of Applied Sciences- gains an additional importance as a scientific and educational centre. This University of Applied Science Oldenburg, East Frisia and Wilhelmshaven presently numbers 3000 students in the following departments: Social Work, Economics , Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Physics- and Chemical Engineering as well as Bio- and Environmental Technology.

  Back