The relocation of companies linked to international market is one of the most negative economic aspects of the globalization. In recent decades most of the big manufacturers have decided to move their production centers to emerging regions, a Developing countries oa Fiscally lax states. In the boat industry it has been no different, which has contributed to the slope of the Spanish naval sector, whose main centers are located in three barely diversified cities: Ferrol (A Coruña), Cartagena (Murcia) and San fernando (Cádiz), although there are others.
Families of engineers, draftsmen Y military that for years moved their residences between the three cities work reasons, now they have seen their visibility and influence in society diminish. Although to this day there are still Projects on the march, it has been years since the massive launchings, which now they do in South Korea, Thailand O Egypt. But did it happen to them invoice is offshoring at three naval cities par excellence of Spain? We check it.
A past of prosperity
–First, it is advisable to do a Quick review of what historically the naval industry meant for Ferrol, Cartagena and San Fernando. It all started towards 1730, when the first military arsenals to serve the Spain navy in the three population centers, taking into account their Location Y geographic characteristics from a defensive and strategic point of view. On 1908 the shipyards pass into the hands of the Spanish Society of Naval Construction, that forty years later, in 1947, is acquired by the Condition, giving rise to the national company Bazan that the great lived industrial heyday of sector. After several processes of reorganization, in the year 2000 the public entity is renamed STAR, which only lasts five years until it is replaced by the current one Navantia on 2005.
–The Spanish shipyards gave life to ships as diverse as frigates, corvettes, patrol cars, aircraft carrier, tankers, submarines, destroyers, landing craft Y ships from logistics supply (AOR), de platform support (BAP), from wheeled cargo (Ro-Ro) Y from helicopter landing (LHD). In the shipyards of The Carraca, in San Fernando, the first torpedo submarine in history: the pear submarine, designed by Lieutenant Isaac peral in 1885 and launched in 1888 in the port of the town of Cadiz. Currently, there are several constructions underway, especially in the Carthaginian shipyard.
Ferrol (A Coruña), adrift
–Today Ferrol represents the city archetype in decline, saved from the shipwreck by her neighbor Narón, with which he meets perfectly integrated. Located on the most northern of Galicia, the city has lost a quarter of its population in the last three decades; where more than 87.000 people, today there are some 65.000 and the number continues to fall. And it is that there is hardly any activity in the shipyard of a very little diversified city in which they were built more than 200 vessels of all types for the Spanish Navy and abroad. Besides, the fragility of the transport network (especially that of the railway) with which Ferrol is connected, a city in itself geographically remote, considerably hinders the socioeconomic dynamism of the area.
San Fernando (Cádiz), in decline
–Located in an area of marismas from Bay of Cadiz, until 1813 the city of San Fernando received the name of Villa de la Real Isla de León. Fully committed to naval and military service, in San Fernando is the arsenal of La Carraca, designed by the famous architect Jorge Juan. In it the first military submarine from the story: Peral, exhibited today in Cartagena. The city also has unique buildings of utmost importance for the military world: from the Royal Astronomical Observatory of the Navy, until the Pantheon of Illustrious Sailors, where they lie Magallanes, Injury or the Galician Mendez Nunez, among many others. Although mired in the unemployment and the inactivity operator, the city of Cadiz saves furniture due to its extreme proximity to the provincial capital, as well as to the rest of the municipalities that make up the urban area of the Bay of Cadiz: Chiclana de la Frontera, The Port of Santa Maria Y port Royal. In addition, the fast connections to Jerez de la Frontera, Sevilla O Córdoba they avoid the dangerous decline of the region.
Cartagena (Murcia), dodging the waves
–Founded in the 3rd century BC. and renamed during the Roman conquest as Carthago Nova, Cartagena is today the most dynamic coastal nucleus of the Murcia region. It was a brief independent canton during the First Republic (1873-1874), of which a movement called “Cartagenerismo”, which calls for the creation of a own province outside of Murcia. With 215,000 inhabitants, the city is consolidated as an important industrial, economic and tourist center of the Costa Calida Levantine, where the abundance of archaeological heritage is combined with the wide presence of cranes and other elements of building. Located in the southern section of the growing Mediterranean axis, the shipyards of the city ensure the activity, at least until 2030, when the current performance contracts end.
