Wärtsilä, Zamakona Yards Join forces in Canary Island

Wärtsilä is enhancing its service offering by participating in a new maintenance hub in the Canary Islands. The facility, operated by one of Spain's biggest shipbuilding and ship repair groups, Zamakona Yards, will provide Wärtsilä's high quality service expertise to satisfy the growing needs of marine and power plant operators.

Wärtsilä will offer maintenance and repair services at a new maintenance hub for marine and power plant operators with special focus on the offshore market in cooperation with CCB Zamakona Offshore S.L. and Zamakona Shipyard, subsidiaries of Zamakona Yards, in Las Palmas, Canary Islands. The new custom-built service centre at the crossroads of the Atlantic, linking Europe, Africa and the Americas, will allow Wärtsilä to better serve operators with ongoing exploration, production and development operations in these regions.

Both Wärtsilä's customers and those of CCB Zamakona Offshore and Zamakona Shipyard will benefit from the local support and experience as well as from the integrated approach that focuses full vessel overhaul capabilities in one location. Wärtsilä will be able to provide high quality service expertise to offshore customers and other segments.

"The common maintenance hub will complement our global service network, as customers will have easy access to the Wärtsilä expertise required for the overhaul of our sophisticated machinery and equipment. The Canary Islands are an important and strategic area in the ship repair and offshore business, and we want to offer our services where our customers need them," says Till Siegmann, Director Service Unit, Wärtsilä Iberica.

Strategic location and expertise attract customers

Zamakona Yards operates in the Canary Islands and the Cantabrian Sea, offering a range of shipbuilding and repair services. The company has a strong history of forming strategic alliances with major equipment and engine manufacturers in order to provide comprehensive service. Wärtsilä has provided expert services to Zamakona Yards' mechanical workshop for more than thirty years and delivered engines for several vessels at the group's shipyards in Basque country.

"We are certain that this enhanced collaboration with Wärtsilä will create further attraction for ship owners to choose Las Palmas as the repair base for their vessels. The port of Las Palmas is an international port where more than 80% of the vessels are foreign. The location is ideal for ships traveling between Europe, Africa and America, and Wärtsilä's expertise allows us to offer them more comprehensive lifecycle services," says Alvaro Garaygordóbil, CEO, Canary Islands Zamakona Yards.

Wärtsilä is increasing its cooperation with shipyards globally in order to provide expert support as close to the customer as possible, and these agreements are complementary to the Wärtsilä network of global service centres.