It must be more important to be thinking about the Christmas concert by now. A gigantic floating dry dock, a Panamax-type vessel waiting to be lifted, and the spectre of industrial activity moving to Gran Canaria. This is what Atlántico Hoy reported this Thursday about the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Port Authority, all over four metres of water depth that could be resolved through any expedited urgent procedure, as the Las Palmas Port Authority does to avoid slowing investment.
Tenerife’s ship-repair industry is once again sounding the alarm after the newspaper Atlántico Hoy revealed the operational paralysis affecting the Hidramar Ultra 22,000, Tenerife Shipyards’ new facility, which arrived on the island on April 21. The Santa Cruz de Tenerife Port Authority’s refusal or delay in authorising a technical adjustment of just four metres to the concessioned water depth has left the project at a standstill and put an estimated 700 direct jobs at risk. €40 million in investment is left without protection.
The complaint was brought into the public domain by labour representatives. As Elena Ruiz, president of the Trabajadores por los Puertos de Tenerife (TPT) union, told Atlántico Hoy, the dispute stems from the so-called dolphins—mooring dolphins or auxiliary anchoring structures—installed on the dock to allow it to be secured to the seabed. This temporary installation extends four metres beyond the water depth originally allocated at the port of the island’s capital.
These structures were installed with the port of Granadilla in mind, where strong wind gusts require a rigid securing system instead of conventional anchoring. However, because of the bureaucratic impasse at Granadilla—where the tender received no bids—the company decided to move the dock to the port of Santa Cruz to begin operations. Having failed to obtain authorisation to occupy those additional four metres, the facility has become inoperative at both sites.
The situation is nearing its technical and commercial limits. The Hidramar Ultra 22,000 has already been assigned its first major contract: the merchant vessel Prestigious WD, currently berthed at the South Dock, where minor work is being carried out while it awaits dry-docking. In the absence of an institutional response, Tenerife Shipyards has been forced to take a drastic decision: absorb an additional cost of €250,000 to cut off and remove the metal dolphins. With that reduction, the vessel will fit strictly within the authorised area and be able to service the ship.
However, this emergency solution has irreversible consequences for the island’s port connectivity. The TPT union warns that, once the dolphins are removed, it will be impossible to reinstall them. This mutilation permanently eliminates the option of moving the dock to Granadilla in the future. Since operating at the port of Santa Cruz is also unsuitable in the long term for infrastructure of this scale, workers fear that the Hidramar Ultra 22,000 will eventually leave Tenerife and be transferred to Gran Canaria.
Such an outcome would be a severe blow to Tenerife’s economy and the diversification of its industrial sector, depriving the island of a facility capable of lifting vessels of up to 22,000 tonnes deadweight and taking hundreds of specialised jobs with it. As the dispute escalates, the Port Authority remains tight-lipped, offering no public explanation for the reasons preventing it from granting the small expansion requested.
The article Suárez’s pathetic obstruction of Tenerife Shipyards over four metres of water depth was first published on canarymaritime.com.
