From boom to bust

Kockums in Malmö, Sweden, was one of the major ship producers globally in the 1950s and 1960s. The shipyard experienced a final boom in the early 1970s but could not be saved from nationalisation and restructuring in the aftermath of the OPEC oil crisis of 1973-74. In 1986, production of ships for civilian use ceased at Kockums, ending a tradition of more than a century. This chapter describes and analyses how production, workers, and relations of production developed at Kockums during the period 1950 to 1986. ¹