The year 1968 was an important and busy year for Lisnave, Estaleiros Navais de Lisbon, located in Lisbon, Portugal. In a special report issued by Thorsten Andersson and Joao Rocheta, managing directors, they outlined the work performed during the year and plans for the future.
Lisnave has two shipyards in Lisbon. One yard, called the north yard, is owned by the Port of Lisbon Authority and is operated by Lisnave. This facility can handle vessels up to 18,000 dwt and employs 2,000 workers. The other yard, known as the south yard, is a new facility recently built and owned by Lisnave. In this latter plant, there are two drydocks, one for ships up to 300,000 dwt and the other for ships up to 100,000 dwt. There are 2,600 employees in the south yard.
During 1968 the north yard repaired a total of 878 vessels, of these 414 required drydocking. The total tonnage of vessels docked was 671,584 gross tons. Of this quantity, 87 were foreign vessels, with 42 requiring drydocking.
In the south yard 182 ships were repaired. Of this total 157 were foreign ships. The total tonnage handled by the yard in 1968 was 10,173,519 dwt. The largest vessel repaired was the Macoma of 207,000 dwt. Also included were a series of 11 ships, each with a deadweight of 71,000 tons. Included in this group was the Vanja, which was the 200th vessel docked since the south yard started operating, less than three years ago. Total drydockings amounted to 153 ships with a gross deadweight of 9,055,557 tons. The largest vessel drydocked was the Esso Mercia of 171,000 dwt.
Shipbuilding at the yards included one ocean-going trawler, 262 feet 6 inches long, and two ships for transporting liquefied petroleum gases, both with 86,520-cubic-feet capacity.
Lisnave conducts a training program for shipyard workers. A good portion of the 2,300 jobs created by the shipyard's expansion between 1964 and 1967 were filled by personnel so trained.
At the present time, Lisnave is studying the advisability of building another drydock in the south yard which would be capable of handling ships up to 750,000 dwt. Also, expansion of shops and piers is underway so that the firm can increase its capacity.
The managing directors credit the expansion of this ship-repairing facility from a fishing boat yard to a large repair yard on its ideal location with respect to the normal sealanes and to the cooperation received from the Port of Lisbon Authority.