UNITED24 - Make a charitable donation in support of Ukraine!

Military


West Sea Viana
Estaleiros Navals de Viana do Castello (ENVC)

West Sea is a shipyard located in Viana do Castelo, North of Portugal. Created by the Martifer Group in 2013, the company is the current sub-concessionary of the lands and infrastructures of the former ENVC – Estaleiros Navais de Viana do Castelo. The shipyard is one of the most important industrial infrastructures in Portugal, with docking capacity for large and medium size ships. It is equipped with workshops and lifting devices for the construction of large modules and equipment. With a total area of 250,000 sqm, the shipyard has the facilities to undertake shipbuilding, conversions and ship repair of any type of vessel up to 37,000 tonnes, 190 meters in length and 29 meters across, as well as small and medium-sized vessels.

ENVC was founded in 1944 and nationalised by Portugal in 1975. It used to operate the largest Portuguese shipyard. It is fully owned by the State through EMPORDEF, a 100% State-owned holding. ENVC had been heavily loss-making since at least 2000, and has had negative equity since at least 2009. In December 2013, the Portuguese state decided to liquidate ENVC and to start selling its assets. The shipyard was acquired by WestSea after an open and competitive tender.

Estaleiros Navals de Viana do Castello (ENVC) was a Portuguese shipbuilder located in the town of Viana do Castelo. ENVC specialised in design, construction, repair and conversion of merchant vessels up to 30 thousand DWT and non-combat military vessels of small and average tonnage. ENVC shipyard was well known for its quality design and construction of complex merchant ships and navy vessels.

Its origins date back to 1944 and for most of its existence, a significant portion of new construction was delivered to the domestic market. ENVC was founded in June 1944 by a group of technicians and skilled workers from the Lisbon Port Shipyard, headed by Américo Rodrigues, their general master. Later, Vasco D'Orey and the Viana-born João Alves Cerqueira (owner of a fishing company in Viana do Castelo) joined them as capitalist shareholders. This took place as part of a governmental program to modernize the Portuguese deep-sea fishing fleet. The first three vessels built by ENVC and all delivered in 1948, were 1480 tdw cod fishing trawlers : the first two, "Senhor dos Mareantes" and "Senhora das Candeias" built for the fishing company of Viana do Castelo and the third, "São Gonçalinho" for the fishing company of Aveiro.

In 1950, H. Parry & Son, Ltd became the main shareholder, delegating on Mr.Jacques de Lacerda the Chairmanship of the Company. In the years that followed, the necessary expansion took place in terms of area, new workshops, equipment and, above all, the widening of the main dock to 25.5 m, so as to face important orders under contract. A third drydock measuring 103 x 11 m was added to the Port Authority granted facilities.

In 1971, the CUF group (owner of Lisnave) assumed majority in the company's capital and a Master Plan was developed to be carried out in two phases. The first phase was almost completed but the national and international crisis of this industry from 1973 onwards, prevented the second phase to be undertaken. It was a very ambitious project, meant to place ENVC in the 80-100 thousand dwt market Amongst the investments achieved during the first phase, dock nr. 1 reached its present dimensions of 202 x 30 m, a 65 m wide outfitting basin with two piers of 190 m was built, a 100 t gantry crane was installed and some new shops were erected, three of which deserve to be enhanced: section fitting, piping and light steelwork shops.

In the 1970s and in the 1980s the yard built 31 standardised vessels for the former USSR and in the 1990s most of the orders came from German customers. The Company's capital increased to ESC. 330 million in 1975 and in 1987 to 3000 million. In 1988 a building platform of 140 x 32 m was finished at the rear of drydock nr. 1 in order to improve repairing capacity, the steel fitting shop was enlarged from 80 to 140 m and new storehouses were built near the steel stockyard. By the end of 1988, the Yard premises were definitely settled in 400.000 sqm.

During its first 50 years of activity, from 1944 to 1994, about 90% of the units built in the Yard were ordered by Portuguese owners, of which 50% for fishing purposes. After the mid 70's and during the 80's, the main market of the company was the former USSR, for which 31 units of very similar characteristics were built. In the 1990's the strongest clients of ENVC were from Germany. The actual main client was the Portuguese Navy.

The frigate Almirante Magalhães Correa, which ENVC knew to build with effectiveness, made evident the capacity to pass over difficulties of building up the most complicated ship which would be adjudicated to the company. That was proved with the building up of seventy ships of the most different types and the most different dimensions, but to build up a complicated war vessel showed the supreme confirmation. In this company nobody ever had doubts that it would be a challenger to win, however, to the others, the expectation was legitimate. At the end, for all was evident that to Vianayard there weren´t obstacles of technical orders; the problem was only placed on the existence of docks with enough length to built up the requested buildings.

Portugal was once again its main market, representing ninety percent of sales. The majority of ENVC's suppliers came from Portugal and Germany. Its more than 200 vessels built to date, include cement carriers, container ships, multipurpose carriers, oil and chemical tankers and passenger vessels. An important addition to the yard's principal shipbuilding activity hasalways been conversion and repair services, where about twenty percent of the workforceis now employed. To remain competitive in the market, ENVC had heavily invested into improvements of its productive infrastructure. Similarly, an investment into information and communication technology (ICT) was viewed as indispensable and represents a powerful contribution to both cost and time-to-market reductions. Further benefits named by ENVC are improvedout sourcing and joint development activities as well as an enhancement to the company's flexibility and responsiveness to increasingly stringent market requirements.

ENVC made heavy losses since 2000. Since then, Portugal has directly and indirectly granted continuous subsidies to ENVC via numerous measures, including a capital increase in 2006, several loans granted between 2006 and 2011 to cover operating costs, comfort letters and guarantees to underwrite financing agreements between ENVC and commercial banks. The total value of the support measures amounts to approx. €290 m.

In 2013 the European Commission opened an investigation to verify whether various public support measures granted by Portugal in favour of the shipyard ‘Estaleiros Navais de Viana do Castelo’ (ENVC) comply with state aid rules, under which any such aid must be compatible with the single market in accordance with Article 107(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. As part of this investigation, the Commission sent the Portuguese Government a series of questions relating to competition and state aid, since it is suspected that the ENVC shipyard may have been granted over EUR 180 million between 2006 and 2010, and that Portugal did not notify the Commission at the time. Furthermore, the Commission had been informed that Portugal plans to grant fresh support to the ENVC shipyard as part of a privatisation plan. The Commission wished to be notified of the nature and exact amounts of this aid, and expressed doubts as to whether the support granted up to now complied with conditions of free competition as stipulated in the Treaty.

In December 2013 State-owned shipbuilder Estaleiros Navais de Viana do Castelo (ENVC) closed and its 609 employees were dismissed. Following an international public tender, the company was awarded in sub-concession to the Martifer Group. The management proposed termination of employment contracts by mutual agreement and compensation. The works council made an appeal to the workers to refuse any proposal for voluntary termination of contracts. Additionally, about 400 of the dismissed workers shall be hired in the beginning of 2014 by Martifer Group, via firm West Sea.

On 07 May 2015 the European Commission concluded that around €290 million of public support granted by Portugal to Estaleiros Navais de Viana do Castelo, S.A. (ENVC), the former operator of shipyards located in Viana do Castelo in Portugal, was not compatible with EU state aid rules. The Commission also found that the aid needs to be paid back by the ENVC and not the new shipyard operator WestSea, which has purchased part of ENVC's assets. There was no economic continuity between ENVC and WestSea because the assets were purchased at market conditions.

The Commission found that no private investor would have accepted to subsidise a loss-making company over 13 years. The measures were therefore not granted on market terms and constitute state aid within the meaning of the EU rules. They gave ENVC a significant economic advantage over its competitors, who had to operate without such subsidies. The Commission further concluded that the measures are not compatible with common rules, in particular the applicable 2004 Guidelines on rescue and restructuring aid, on the basis of which aid to companies in difficulty may be allowed subject to certain conditions.

Nº

 NAME

OWNER

COUNTRY

DELIVERY

LENGTH. PP (m)

BEAM (m)

TDW
Hospital Ship
15 Gil Eannes GRÉMIO DOS ARMADORES DE  NAVIOS DE PESCA DO BACALHAU Portugal 1955 88.72 13.76 2274
Patrol Coast
24 Brava U.S.A. GOV. U.S.A. 1956 51.82 7.046 130
25 Fogo U.S.A. GOV. U.S.A. 1957 51.82 7.046 131
Fleet Oil Tanker
50 S. Gabriel MINISTRY OF NAVAL AFFAIRS Portugal 1963 138.00 18.20 9854
Patrol Launch
54 Argos MINISTRY OF NAVAL AFFAIRS Portugal 1963 40.00 6.70 42
55 Dragão MINISTRY OF NAVAL AFFAIRS Portugal 1963 40.00 6.70 42
56 Escorpião MINISTRY OF NAVAL AFFAIRS Portugal 1963 40.00 6.70 42
57 Pegaso MINISTRY OF NAVAL AFFAIRS Portugal 1963 40.00 6.70 42
Frigate
63 Alm. Magalhães Correa MINISTERIO DA MARINHA Portugal 1968 93.88 11.17 ----------






NEWSLETTER
Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list