Shipbuilding: Navantia to build Five Navy Frigates

Spain's Navantia will build five F-110 frigates for the Spanish navy in a contract worth $4.9 billion. Navantia, which employs around 5,000 people, has in recent years racked up deep losses which reached 389 million euros in 2017.

The government's representative in the Galicia region where the frigates will be built said the contract would create 1,300 direct jobs over nine years and as many as 5,700 more indirectly.

Javier Losada, a member of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's Socialist party, said the contract would be approved on Friday during the weekly cabinet meeting.

In April, Spain agreed to sell warships built at Navantia's yards to Saudi Arabia in a deal worth an estimated 1.8 billion euros.

(Reuters)