SEPI Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales

• Ms. Platero meets the shipyards’ workers representatives

The Chairwoman of the Spanish state-owned industrial holding company Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales (SEPI), Ms. Pilar Platero, paid a visit this Tuesday to the Dock facilities which NAVANTIA has in Cartagena, where she met its managers and the works council, in order to know thoroughly their concerns, as well as the activity carried out at these workplaces.

The visit encompassed the main facilities of the Cartagena shipyard, including the Engines Factory. Ms. Platero’s visit to Cartagena is part of the round of meetings which SEPI’s Chairwoman is holding with the workers and managers of NAVANTIA’s different workplaces. Currently, the Cartagena Shipyard has a number of ongoing programs, the most important of which is the building of four S-80 submarines for the Spanish Navy.

Currently, NAVANTIA generates more than 7,600 jobs, among direct, indirect, and induced, which entails 10.4% of the manufacturing employment in the autonomous region of Murcia and 1.4% of the total employment in this region. At the same time, the activity at the Dock amounts to 5.4% of the manufacturing GDP of the autonomous region of Murcia, which translates into 0.71% of the total regional GDP.

Besides the building of the four S-80 submarines for the Spanish Navy, the Shipyard is also developing another two significant programs, as the hull bottom works for the submarines which the Spanish Navy keeps operating at the moment, as well as the construction of six Scorpene-class submarines at the MDL shipyard in Bombay (India) through a technology transfer contract.

In the case of the Engines Factory, besides the construction programs for the new ships for the Spanish Navy and their maintenance, it has contracts in force with different international Navies (Turkey, Australia, Brazil,…), and it also carries out works for the civilian market. As for Ship Repairs, besides the contracts for the ships of the Spanish Navy, during the last years it is specializing on the repair of yachts and of mega-yachts. Among its latest landmarks was the end of the works and sea trials of the largest private sail-assisted motor yacht in the world, the Sailing Yacht A.

SEPI’s Chairwoman was accompanied during her visit to the shipyard by SEPI’s Director of the Division of Subsidiaries and Affiliated Companies - Defense, Mr. Bartolomé Lora, and by the Director of the Cartagena Shipyard, Mr. Agustín Alvarez. NAVANTIA’s Chairman, Mr. Esteban García Vilasánchez, has not taken part in this visit due to the fact that he is in a trip to Saudi Arabia, in what constitutes his first travel abroad with the aim of promoting the contract for building five corvettes for that country.

Ms. Platero’s visit to NAVANTIA’s Dock at Cartagena takes place a time when SEPI is coming to grips with a Strategic Plan aimed at reinforcing the efficiency and competitiveness of the shipbuilding company, focused on promoting the economy of those areas on which its facilities are located.

The generation of jobs linked to the new challenges faced by the market constitutes one of the main goals of this Plan, which will also include a training program and changes within the digital area which seek to reinforce NAVANTIA’s strategic capabilities, the improvement of its products and of its business model.