Fincantieri announced on Monday it has reached a deal that will allow it to expand its shipbuilding footprint in the port of Ancona.
The Italian shipbuilding company said it has signed a program agreement with the Port System Authority of the Central Adriatic Sea (ADSP) to develop the port’s current infrastructure, including construction piers, dry dock, technological and lifting facilities, for the construction of ships of greater size and tonnage, both in the cruise and merchant sector.
The value of the investment is €80 million, of which €40 million is publicly funded: €20 million for the building of a new construction pier and €20 million for the extension of the dry dock, including the securing of the breakwater. The remaining €40 million will come from a private investment by Fincantieri as part of the procedure for the granting of the new state concession for the next 40 years and will concern the development of shipbuilding in the port of Ancona.
The program agreement follows a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for strategic infrastructural investments for the development of shipbuilding in the port of Ancona in 2018 signed by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport and the Authority, and the subsequent ministerial decree with which the public financing of €40 million was approved.
"With the development of the port of Ancona we’re moving into the future with ambition and innovation. This agreement underscores our ability to invest in the Italian system and to create value for the region and the entire shipbuilding sector. It’s an important step: to make things happen resources aren’t enough, you have to actually put them on the ground," said Fincantieri's CEO and managing director Pierroberto Folgiero,
ADSP president Vincenzo Garofalo said the agreement and investment "will have a strong impact on the future development prospects of the port of Ancona, with positive economic and social repercussions on the city and the region. Fincantieri, one of the port's primary operators, has thus reaffirmed its confidence in the possibilities of growth and development of the facility in Ancona and the entire port infrastructure."