The first yard was opened in 1918–1919 by the A.P. Møller company. A new yard with bigger and better facilities was constructed 1957–1959 on a new site located in
Munkebo a few kilometres outside
Odense proper. Odense Steel Shipyard was the largest yard within the Odense Steel Shipyard Group, which also consisted of two yards and an engineering company, all situated in the Baltic. The yard was known for designing and building innovative vessels that applied the newest technology in design and equipment. Since 1996 the Yard built some of the world's
largest container ships; including the Mærsk E-class with a nominal capacity of 15,550
TEU (originally declared as 11,000 TEU), the highest equivalent number of any vessel as of today. However, Maersk chose
Daewoo to build its latest and largest design, the
Triple E class with a nominal capacity of 18,000 TEU, as the Asian shipyard was more competitive. The original shipyard remained in operation until 1966, when all operations were transferred to the new site. Unlike the modern shipyard, the old yard produced civilian and merchant vessels only. Its first completed ship was cargo
steamship Robert Mærsk, completed in 1920. Its last production was Yard No. 177, the bulk carrier
Laura Mærsk.
The new Odense Steel Shipyard (the "Lindø" Yard) The new shipyard originally had two building docks, No. I and II (300 × 45 × 7.5 metres each), allowing the construction of tankers of up to . The yard was enlarged in 1967 to include a new very large building dock, No. III (415 × 90 metres), and an 800-ton, 95-metre tall, 148.5-metre span
gantry crane, allowing the construction of tankers in the
VLCC and
ULCC class. The largest construction planned on the yard was two tankers, but this order was later cancelled. From the 1960s until 1977, the yard only constructed
oil tankers (no larger than ) as well as bulk carriers. The first
RO-RO ship was built in 1979, and the first container ship in 1980. In December 1992, the yard completed the world's first 300,000 DWT double-hull tanker. In January 1996 they delivered its first
Post-Panamax container ship. On 3 December 1999 the gantry crane collapsed after a hurricane in the building dock and damaged the ship No.170
Cornelius Mærsk, which was repaired thereafter and delivered two months later.
MAN Takraf of Leipzig, Germany, delivered a new 1,000 ton, 110-metre tall gantry crane in April 2001. The collapse in world shipping during the
Great Recession led Maersk to announce in January 2009 that Odense would concentrate on smaller ships but in May 2009 they announced that they would be closing the yard altogether and putting
Baltija Shipbuilding Yard in
Lithuania up for sale. The last newbuild from Lindø was No.714
Niels Juel, a frigate for the Royal Danish Navy, which was delivered in January 2012. ==After yard closure==