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The Martifer manager said today that 2020 is the “best year in history” since 2014, when he took over the sub-concession of the Viana do Castelo shipyards, aiming for a turnover of 100 million euros.
“This year will be the best for shipyards, both in construction and in ship repair. We will have a sale value of around 100 million euros ”, Carlos Martins said today.
The official, who spoke with journalists on the sidelines of a visit by the Minister of the Sea to the company, said that the order book is “very solid”, both in construction and in ship repair and that, this year, they work, in average, in the shipyard, per day, more than 1,200 workers.
“In terms of repairs, the portfolio is complete until mid-2021. It is a challenge that we face every day and we are responding positively. Regarding the order book, we are building four polar ships at the same time ”, he specified.
He added that, in shipbuilding, businessman Mário Ferreira is, at this moment, the only client.
The administrator of Martifer, owner of West Sea, a sub-concessionaire of the Viana do Castelo shipyards, indicated the first quarter of 2021 for the start of the construction of a new dock, in an investment of 15 million euros, which, once completed , in the second quarter of 2022, will allow the creation of 120 more direct jobs.
At stake is the contract for the deepening of the port and access channel to the shipyards and the Bugio dock, inaugurated in June.
With 220 meters long and 45 meters wide, the deepening of the access channel to the shipyards, which will take place, simultaneously with the works carried out by the Administration of the Duero, Leixões and Viana do Castelo Ports (APDL), in the sea port. will allow the construction of “higher quality and technologically more advanced warehouses”.
Asked about the possibility of the Viana do Castelo shipyards building the six new Ocean Patrol Boat (NPO), provided for in the Military Programming Law, Carlos Martins said that the company “awaits” this project.
“We hope that the Government will launch the program to build six more patrol boats. We look forward to this project for Viana do Castelo. We think that, in 2021, we can have orders and that they will be developed in half a dozen years, “he said.
In April 2019, during a visit to the Viana do Castelo shipyards, the Prime Minister said that, “if all goes well”, the Government will order “six new NPOs and other vessels provided for in the Military Programming Law”, recalling that At the Viana do Castelo shipyards, another four NPOs have already been built for the Portuguese Navy, two of them by WestSea.
Today, to journalists, Carlos Martins, admitted that the market “is more compressed” due to the pandemic caused by the new coronavirus, but he guaranteed that the company’s “curriculum” “allows it to present other solutions and test other clients ”.
“Shipyards went through the covid-19 pandemic with more work and more workers than in the past. We are aware of what the market has in store for us. A part of our order book is highly dependent on the tourism sector, which is suffering. But we are adapting so that this path continues within the demands that the market places on us, also thinking about the decarbonization and sustainability agenda ”, he added.
Carlos Martins pointed out that the company passed the most critical phase of the covid-19 pandemic, in the months of April and May, with “distinction.”
“We responded well to the pandemic. We quickly began to work in shifts, very attentive to what was happening ”, ensuring that it did not occur in a“ focus ”of the disease, only in“ one or another isolated case ”.
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