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On a growth curv

Ocean going vessels, military and research ships: the Spanish shipbuilding industry has had impressively high sales figures in recent years, with the volume of orders rising to record levels.

In 2007 the Spanish shipbuilding industry registered a sharp rise in orders, coming primarily from foreign shipping companies. This demonstrates both the high competitiveness of the Spanish dockyards, and the worldwide boom in demand for new ships.

Photo: flickr/John Durrant

Among the leading Spanish shipyards in terms of production and volume of orders are H.J. Barreras in Pontevedra, Factorías Vulcano in Cádiz and Navantia, the state-owned Spanish shipyard in Cartagena. In 2007 the volume of orders rose by 19 percent, measured in Compensated Gross Tons.

Competition within Europe

The dockyards in South Korea, China and Japan will be running at full capacity until 2009. As a result, hundreds of contracts have been signed with European shipbuilding countries such as Spain. For that reason it is the other European dockyards like those in Turkey, Ukraine, Romania and Greece that are Spain's major competitors. Spain produces the bulk of its ships for the European market (Norway, Italy, the UK, France and Denmark), but also for Venezuela and Chile in South America, as well as Australia.

For the oil sector

Shipbuilding in Spain is mainly geared towards the oil sector, where the ships are used to support offshore oil platforms. A further key sector is the construction of marine research ships. For its part the state-owned Spanish dockyard Navantia has international supremacy in producing entire fleets for the armed forces of various countries.

Supported by EU funds

In recent months the European Commission has evaluated its directive State aid to shipbuilding (II). Two of its fields of application, aid for closures and job creation, have not been implemented in Spain until now. Others, by contrast, such as aid for exports, development and innovation, have been. The guidelines also contain a unique agreement on aid for innovation in the shipbuilding sector. After completing its evaluation, the European Commission decided the guidelines would remain in force until December 31, 2011.
The Spanish shipbuilding sector has grown rapidly ever since Spain entered the EU. This can be seen in the current order backlog of the Spanish dockyards. In most cases, they are fully booked until 2013, while the Barreras Shipyard is booked through to 2016. In recent years EU aid has benefited the development of the Spanish shipyards. In a similar way, countries like Poland, which today receive the same assistance, will in time grow to become major players in European shipbuilding.

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