Shipbuilding
Our traditional wooden boat construction industry was second in importance after the ironworks, but it was languishing until it disappeared in the last quarter of the 19th century.
The era of the iron shipbuilding in the estuary begins with the contract to build three ships for the Spanish navy, awarded to José M.a Martínez de las Rivas, who was associated with Charles Mark Palmer. In 1889 the shipyard was established on the land of Sestao and in 1891 the three battleships were launched: Infanta María Teresa, Vizcaya and Almirante Oquendo. In January 1892 the company Martínez Rivas, Palmer & Cía became Astilleros del Nervión S.A.
In 1900, the Euskalduna Company for the Construction and Repair of Ships was established, promoted by Ramón de la Sota and Eduardo Aznar in the former Drydocks in Olabeaga.
In 1916 the Spanish Shipbuilding Society, founded in 1909, built a shipyard in Sestao and in 1924 swallowed up the Nervión Shipyards. In 1969 Euskalduna, La Naval, and Astilleros de Cádiz merged and established Astilleros Españoles, S.A. becoming the most important shipbuilding industry on the Iberian Peninsula and one of the largest in Europe.
The industrial restructuring led to the closure of Euskalduna in 1988. In 2000 AESA merged with the National Company Bazán, hence the group IZAR, which in 2005 became Navantia. In 2020 the Sestao shipyards were definitively closed.
