Maritime Canary Islands looking for industrial partners in the north before offshore wind power deployment
Astican and Canary Islands Maritime Cluster highlight the strong ties uniting Galicia and Canary Islands companies due to the fishing relationship
Offshore Wind Power deployment is a unique opportunity for shipbuilding and auxiliary sector of the Canary Islands, traditionally dedicated to ship repairs and transformations. All in all, the new segment poses important challenges for the insular sector, made up of two shipyards (Astican and Zamakona) and more than 110 auxiliary companies. The main issue: the lack of capacity to serve a new market that will add to the industry regular workload. That is why, Canary Islands sector has begun an active search for industrial partners in the north of the Iberian Peninsula.
The first contact took place this week at the Navalia Executive Committee meeting, focused on the celebration of the second edition of the Navalia Meeting, which will take place from September 20 to 22 precisely, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The meeting was attended by Germán Suárez, CEO of Astican, the founding shipyard of the Canary Islands Maritime Cluster and who holds its presidency, as well as Elba Bueno, Cluster Manager.
“Canary Islands shipbuilding sector has evolved and is now going to be the spearhead of the Offshore Wind and Offshore Renewables sector. Gran Canaria is the first point in Spain where a floating wind-farm will be tendered,”Mr Suárez said in a statement to this magazine, agreeing that the process represents a learning experience for the entire industry. All in all, the outlook is very positive, but the risk is that "it could overload us if everything goes well." “If we add these possible associated jobs to our normal ship repair business, we are going to need more capacity. And that greater capacity is found in the Iberian Peninsula and in the north of Spain”, he pointed out. The basis of this future collaboration has roots, as Suárez highlighted, highlighting the links between the shipbuilding sector of the north, the Galician sector, and the Canary Islands, forged over decades before the development of the Galician fishing sector on the islands. "We are looking for industrial and capacity partners because we know we are going to be 100%, and we know they have decades of experience here."
From her side, Elba Bueno, Canary Islands Maritime Cluster Manager, highlighted the showcase that the celebration of the Navalia Meeting on the islands represents. “We think the visibility it will give to the sector is of great importance, both to the auxiliary industry and to the Canary Islands shipyards, in Gran Canaria”, she pointed out. The celebration of the Congress "is a way of making visible the work of many years in the area of repair and maintenance of ships, of offshore platforms. We have a business network delighted to welcome a sister industry to us,” she said.
The congress expects to bring together over 250 attendees at Infecar Feria de Gran Canaria, will be structured into four large thematic areas with the participation of around twenty speakers. Specifically, the challenges of the Oil & Repair market, the Spanish shipbuilding sector from a regional perspective, the future of the military naval industry in Spain and offshore wind will be addressed. It will only be accessible by the sponsors' invitation.
(Source: Industrias Pesqueras)