SEPI Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales

• Ms. Platero met with the shipyards workers’ representatives

Ms. Pilar Platero, Chairwoman of the Spanish state-owned industrial holding company Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales (SEPI), paid a visit this Friday to the facilities of NAVANTIA’s shipyards at the Ría de Ferrol (Northwestern Spain), where she met the works councils of this company in order to know in depth about their worries, as well as the activity carried out at these facilities. She was accompanied by the Company’s new Chairman, Mr. Esteban García Vilasánchez, by the Director of the Division of Subsidiaries and Affiliated Companies of the Defense industry, Mr. Bartolomé Lora, and by the Director of the Ferrol’s shipyard, Mr. Julio Martín.

The visit covered the shipyard’s main areas, including the ship repair area and that for turbines. Later, she visited the facilities of the Fene shipyard. Ms. Platero’s visit to Ferrol is part of the round of meetings which SEPI’s Chairwoman is holding with the workers and the managers of these NAVANTIA’s work centers, and which began on March 30th, at the Bay of Cádiz, when she attended the launching ceremony of the vessel “Audaz”, the fifth of a series made up by six units ordered by the Spanish Navy. Precisely the sixth is being built at Ferrol, and its launching is expected to take place in the coming months.

Currently, NAVANTIA’s shipyards at the Ría de Ferrol have three ongoing programs, while another three will begin in a question of months. All these six programs provide more than 5 Million workhours for the Company itself and for its ancillary companies. NAVANTIA  generates every year in Ferrol around 14,500 direct, indirect, and induced jobs, which amounts to 3.3% of the existing jobs in the province of Corunna and 2.2% of its GDP.

At Ferrol is being built an offshore patrol vessel (OPV) for the Spanish Navy, as well as a number of building blocks for the Suezmax class oil tankers. On the other hand, in the coming months will start the work for building two Cantabria class auxiliary oiler replenishment (AORs) ships for Australia, which will be fully built at the Ría de Ferrol, and whose contract was won in a strongly contested international bid last May.

Furthermore, at Fene’s facilities work is being carried out on offshore wind power, on the program for the building of five floating substructures for Statoil / Hywind. There is also a contract in force with Iberdrola, and whose manufacture will begin in the coming months, for building 42 jackets for the East Anglia offshore wind farm. Equally, another contract has been concluded, this time for building a further four jackets for Siemens Wind Power; it is envisaged that work on this program will begin shortly.

Ms. Platero’s visit to the Ferrol shipyards takes place when SEPI has raised the issue of developing a Strategic Plan aimed at reinforcing NAVANTIA’s efficiency and sustainability, focused on promoting the economies of the hinterlands on which its facilities are located.

One of the main goals of this Plan is to generate new jobs related to the new challenges faced by the market. The Plan will also include a training program, as well as changes within the digital area which seek to reinforce NAVANTIA’s strategic capabilities, and to improve its products and its business model.