SINAVAL 2009 draws over 5700 visitors

The sectors which most attracted the interest of visitors were vessel outfitting, shipyards, vessel engineering and design, repairers, construction and the ancillary industry and fishing tackle.

Events during the fair were both more numerous and of a higher standard than in previous years. They were attended by more than 775 specialists. Among significant topcis were the lecture “Offshore Support Vessels: More and More Complex and Efficient” which looked at new market trends and requirements which shipyards and ancillary industry need to meet, the Annual Conference and Governing Board Meeting of CIRM (Comité International Radio-Maritime), the world's most prestigious event in the field of naval electronics and the celevrations to mark the centenary of the La Naval shipyard in Sestao, owned by the CNN Group. included a talk attended by over 120 people on the history of the shipyard.  The yard's manager, Iñaki Irasuegui, announced that La Naval will make a profit this year and that negotiations are under way for around half a dozen contracts which would assure a workload for the yard up to 2011.

Other events included presentations of historical memoirs of Basque fishermen and a modular hold for smart fishing vessels. Future Port, an international meeting of the ports industry, was another high-profile international element of the fair, which covered the topics "More Productive Port Logistics" and "Towards More Sustainable Ports".

The General Assembly of the Spanish Maritime Cluster was also held. It included a proposal for measures to mitigate the effects of the recession on the maritime sector, including shipping, shipbuilding, engineering, ancillary industry, fishing and aquaculture, transport and logistics companies, port activities, oceanographic research, energy, environment and a wide range of services which between them generate added value in excess of 26 billion Euro.

In the context of the fisheries industry, SINAVAL also hosted the General Assembly and Governing Board meeting of FEICOPESCA (Spanish Federation of Associations of Fisheries and Aquaculture Product Processors and Marketers) and a Governing Board meeting of and seminar by CEPESCA (Spanish Fisheries Confederation). The Basque Maritime Forum also organised a presentation on for intelligent fishing vessels, focused on speeding up the classification of catches on board, so that fish can be auctioned from the vessel itself, and the optimisation of space so that fish can be monitored from their capture to the counter in the fish market.