This well known Portuguese shipyard is said to be the largest repair shipyard in Europe and for vessels above 30,000 tdw it is one of the five top yards in terms of market shares worldwide.
The financial and shipping crisis in 2009 was also felt by Lisnave’s repair activities in number of vessels that slumped[ds_preview] by around 15 % compared to the previous year.
Lisnave shipyard, originally and for many years having been within the city limits of Portugal’s capital Lisbon, today is geographically located in Mitrena, on the River Sado estuary, just a few miles distance from Setubal and the Atlantic Ocean. This together with a favourable climate in the southern area of Portugal grants a calm environment and good weather conditions for paintworks on ships hulls almost the whole year. With a 1,500,000 m² area Lisnave holds the capacity of growth as the location on the crisscross of several major world maritime trade routes will maybe demand so in the future.
Preparing and investments for the future is one of Lisnave’s traditions and consequently a plan for training young people to become professionals both as engineers or labourers has been implemented over the last years.
Beside this to ensure for its customers the best service, Lisnave operates six dry docks which enable to dock vessels up to VLCC size. Two docks are located underneath the working area of a portal crane with a lifting capacity of up to 500 t. All docks are equipped with at least two cranes of which one has a lifting capacity of max. 100 t. Lisnave is also either certified by major marine equipment manufacturer to be their authorised service partner or holds signed cooperation agreements with them in order to perform a wide scope of own service to sophisticated technical equipment. Thus being an authorized partner of MAN and MAN Turbo-Diesel the shipyard is also able to conduct repair and maintenance of engines and auxiliary engines related works.
In order to ensure an optimum service and with regard to the spacious area, the Yard deemed it vital to shorten the way of communication and to optimise the flow of information within the Yard by utilising fully equipped movable offices which carry out the administrative work of a project »in loco« near the client. Also the available readiness of any measuring tools and other sensitive equipment is important and is ensured by the yard’s own calibration laboratory which is equally accredited and ISO 17025 compliant.
The success in the business of ship repair nowadays is dependable on the own commitment to environment protection. To ensure best practice to the environmental protection for today and the future, the yard constructed two waste water treatment plants to process properly industrial and domestic waste water. Also three out of six dry docks the so called »hydrolift docks« are, due to its design, not connected to the open waters of the river when a vessel is at dry dock. This is a further contribution to the active environment protection of Lisnave.
The company was created in 1997 as part of a restructuring plan implemented to meet the forecast ship repair and conversion needs in the next century, succeeding to the former Lisnave, Estaleiros Navais de Lisboa, established in 1961, with its facilities in the south bank of Tagus River, in Lisbon, where a new yard – Margeira – was erected with facilities to accommodate the largest vessels being built. In 1973 Setnave (Estaleiros Navais de Setubal) was built at Mitrena. Originally the Portuguese shipyard was founded on 1st January, 1937, when the so called C.U.F. Group took over the Rocha Shiprepair Yard concession, situated on the North bank of the Tagus estuary at Lisbon.
This restructuring was completed in the meantime, following the general upgrading of the Mitrena yard and the construction of three additional Panamax size dry-docks. Today all activities are concentrated in Mitrena. The yard grants work direct and indirectly to 1,500 to 2,500 people. In an own educational programme Lisnave trained around 250 young skilled workers in order to maintain its high level of service quality also in the future.
Apart its expertise and adequate facilities for maintenance and repair of any size of machines and equipments, fluid systems, electrical equipments, tail shafts, propellers and rudders, heavy steel works, recondition and reassembling of components, and many other ship repair and maintenance operations, Lisnave is totally prepared for any kind of surface treatment and painting work.
Fair weather year round allows grit blasting and painting operations to be carried out without major weather delays. Although currently the main method of surface preparation is by grit blasting, other methods such as ultra high pressure water blasting can be offered. The most sophisticated coatings can be specified with confidence and owners can be assured that coating will be applied strictly in accordance with paint manufacturer’s specifications. Lisnave’s expertise is not confined to external work; the same level of expertise is available for internal surface treatment and coatings. A full range of dehumidifiers, heaters, staging and dust collection equipment is available at the yard.
Dry-docks and berths
• Dock nº 20: 420 m x 75 m, draft 4,6 m
• Dock nº 21: 450 m x 75 m, draft 7,6 m
• Dock nº 22: 350 m x 55 m, draft 7,6 m
• Dock nº 31: 280 m x 39 m, draft 5,1 m
• Dock nº 32: 280 m x 39 m, draft 5,1 m
• Dock nº 33: 280 m x 39 m, draft 5,1 m
• 9 Repair berths with total length 1,400 m, draft 6,6 m
• Lifting Equipment: 20 Travelling Cranes (up to 100 t) and 1 Gantry Crane (500 t) over Docks nº 20 and 21
The yard occupies an area of 1,500,000 m².
Over the last years Lisnave docked in average 125 vessel per year and about ten more vessels had been repaired afloat. In contribution to the geographical location the majority of vessels are tankers and bulk carriers which are together accumulating to approx. 85 % of the total vessels number. But during the last years the number of dockings of container vessels is increasing as well as the size of these vessels. The majority of the container vessels are operated by German ship managers. In order to have a close contact to those companies and to ensure best practice communication between the yard and the Owner Lisnave has a signed agreement of cooperation with the German shipyard agency Zoepffel & Schneider (See HANSA 01/2010, page 50) with Christian Schneider as Managing Owner of the agency. He is supported by 4 employees all with a shipping background.
With an average of about 15 days in drydock Lisnave is focusing and has its strength in the second and third special survey of a vessel. But also other projects are conducted by Lisnave as lately one OOLC was modified to combat the oil contamination in the Gulf of Mexico. The project was a »short notice« project to Lisnave and the successful modification of the project could only be complete by strong cooperation between the owner of the vessel, the Classification Society and Lisnave Shipyard. Six permanent openings of 300 x 5,000 mm on each side in the forward hull of the vessel on about two thirds of the maximum draft had been cut in order to allow the oil contaminated water to flow into the ship. The oily water thereafter will be transferred into the cargo tanks and discharged ashore for further treatment. The modification was not only by cutting these permanent openings but as well to fit additional internal piping including valves which are hydraulically operated.
The shareholding structure of Lisnave Estaleiros Navais S.A. is as follows: approximately 73 % are belonging to private Portuguese interest, 20 % to the German TKMS AG, 3 % to the Portuguese Government and the remaining 4 % are with various private shareholders.
GF
