The PP’s political blockade of the floating breakwater at the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife has not only wiped out €11.6 million in wages. The technical barriers imposed at a port that has no problems launching fireworks at the Dársena Pesquera in the Anaga District are not merely paralysing key infrastructure for the shipbuilding sector; the inactivity of the Hidramar Ultra 22000 floating breakwater is directly destroying public revenue and the island’s wage base, according to the Tenerife Port Workers’ Union. The union describes what is happening at the Port Authority of Tenerife as the “result of a gangster-style campaign” against “skilled employment”; “they are creating problems for the state, and here the state seems not to exist.”
“This is absurd. Someone in an office in Madrid or Brussels is saying this and does not believe it. The other day, when the Pope’s setting featured a cayuco placed as a prop on an industrial surface such as a pier, there was no problem. But following the Pope’s lead on the Church’s social doctrine is out of the question. We did not report it out of respect for Tenerife society,” said an STPT spokesperson. “The security issue is a lie; it is because they are under pressure from Las Palmas,” the same source said.
“It is said, but it is not believed”
After mooring in the island capital in April 2026 following a transatlantic voyage from China, the facility was supposed to begin operations in early June. The inability to operate at full capacity from May until the end of August has caused a major fiscal and labour setback.
During these four months of paralysis, the General Treasury of Social Security has failed to collect approximately €4.26 million in social security contributions paid by the company and its workers. This missing contribution corresponds to the wage bill required to cover the projected direct workforce of 700 highly qualified professionals, with base salaries ranging from €3,500 a month to €7,000 for specialists in welding and heavy boiler-making.
For its part, the Tax Agency has suffered a direct shortfall of around €2.58 million in personal income tax. Applying an average withholding rate of 22%, in line with the estimated income brackets for this technical profile in the archipelago, the accumulated delay over the summer deprives state and regional coffers of a flow of resources that should have gone to the archipelago’s public services.
The impact on the island’s household economy is devastating. During the period of inactivity, workers in the shipbuilding sector and newly recruited technical staff have stopped receiving nearly €11.76 million in direct gross wages. This volume of disposable income has been frozen before reaching local shops, services and industries supporting the local economy.
The refusal to grant a one-off four-metre technical extension to the concession area not only jeopardises operations involving Panamax-type vessels, but also threatens to divert industrial activity to the neighbouring island of Gran Canaria. The STTP reports that while the company bears the breakwater’s fixed maintenance costs, the public purse loses nearly €1.7 million a month in direct taxes and Social Security contributions.
Operational paralysis is compounded by a lack of flexibility in port procedures, with the administration rejecting the installation of an in-house training centre on the grounds of planning restrictions affecting adults within the premises. The combination of regulatory obstacles and spatial rigidity on the quays turns a strategic industrial project measuring 240 metres in length into a drain on the public finances of the Canary Islands.
The article Tax Agency and Social Security have already lost €6.8 million due to the PP’s blockade of the breakwater at the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife was first published on canarymaritime.com.
