Vard Tulcea is the Romanian yard of Vard, part of Fincantieri, and stands on the Danube at Tulcea, about 40 nautical miles from the Black Sea. It was established in 1975 and has been part of Vard since 2000. The legal entity is now Vard Shipyards Romania S.A. Phase I of the site covers 756,000 square metres.
The yard specialises in hull manufacture and early outfitting, and every programme it names follows the same pattern: the hull is built at Tulcea and outfitting, commissioning and delivery are done at Vard's Norwegian yards. Full outfitting and delivery are within its stated scope, but no completed vessel of that kind is named. Recent work includes the hull of a construction service operation vessel delivered from Norway in 2025, hulls for two cable-laying vessels due in the fourth quarter of 2026, and the hull of a deep-sea research vessel.
Five building berths are in use, three of them under the runway of a 700-tonne Goliath crane; the two heaviest are rated at 165 tonnes per linear metre and the others at 33. A floating dock handles transfer and docking of up to 27,000 tonnes. The outfitting quays carry two 120-tonne gantry cranes and further cranes of 15 to 50 tonnes, and the commissioning quay is fitted with fume extraction, waste water treatment, technical gas distribution, welding power racks, loading platforms and an access tower.
The hull shop shot blasts and primes plate up to 12,000 millimetres, cuts on four CNC machines with automatic bevelling and a robotic edge-rounding cell, and runs two panel lines under overhead cranes of 75 and 50 tonnes, with presses of 500 and 1,000 tonnes, plate rolling to 6,000 millimetres and profile bending at 250 tonnes. Pipework occupies a 2,800 square metre steel pipe area with CNC benders for 25 to 350 millimetre diameters, band saws, flame cutting to 600 millimetres and CNC flange welding, and a 2,000 square metre special pipe area with pressure testing, high pressure washing, and painting and drying cabins. Hull outfitting, locksmith, mechanical and galvanising work covers 27,000 square metres, the electrical workshop and store 4,400 square metres and six warehouses 15,800 square metres. Five blasting and painting halls take grand blocks of about 1,800 tonnes. Heavy movement is by modular hydraulic transfer system, multiwheelers of 228 and 380 tonnes, four 250-tonne self-propelled modular transporters and mobile cranes of up to 120 tonnes. Quality, environment and occupational health and safety are certified to ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015 and ISO 45001:2018.
