The Navantia-Cádiz ship repair factory is now the only one in Spain to maintain a positive economic balance in recent years.
According to the Diario de Cádiz, the president of the works council of the Cadiz plant, José Antonio Bolaños, confirmed this to this newspaper after giving a brief overview of the work that has been carried out in Cadiz since January 1st, along with that which is to come throughout this year.
For now, although there are many other types of ships that pass through docks 1 or 2 of the Navantia-Cádiz repair shipyard, cruise ships continue to be the ones that stand out the most in those profit accounts that are moving away from the dreaded red, a color that always comes related to debts and the dreaded bankruptcy, says Joaquín Benítez, journalist of the Diario de Cádiz.
The report provided by Bolaños shows the stay in Cadiz, between January and April of this year, of four cruise ships belonging to the fleet of the North American shipping company Royal Caribbean International, one of the most coveted in the cruise ship repair market, especially due to the size of its vessels.
Navantia is already prepared to respond to the arrival of eight more cruise ships throughout 2023 and several Navy vessels.
The year began with the Independence of the Seas, considered one of the world's largest cruise ships. It departed and the Explorer of the Seas entered dock 4 of Navantia-Cádiz, the largest at the Cádiz shipyard.
In Cadiz, this last ship of the Royal Caribbean International fleet remained in the capital until the last days of February to make way for the Mariner of the Seas, which entered dock 4 this Tuesday, February 28, according to the Diario de Cadiz.
The president of the Navantia-Cádiz works council explained that the fact that the four Royal Caribbean ships are so similar means that the dry dock preparation between the departure of one ship and the arrival of the next takes less time than usual. This has allowed, for example, the Mariner of the Seas, the third Royal Caribbean ship to enter Navantia for repairs this year, to enter the dry dock two days after the Explorer of the Seas left on Sunday. The next ship will be the Symphony of the Seas, which will remain in Cádiz until April.
José Antonio Bolaños explains, according to Joaquín Benítez, that the dry-docking of these ships is not considered a major undertaking, since their time in the dock is something like "a vehicle inspection, and it is used to check all the main systems as well as to give them a paint job," operations that require dry-docking of no more than 21 or 22 days, which coincides with the stays that the Royal Caribbean International ships are carrying out that will be occupying dock 4 of the Navantia repair shipyard in Cádiz from January to April.
