HIJOS de Barreras shipyard in Vigo is nearing completion of Albatœn Tres, an identical tuna purse seiner to Albatœn Dos delivered earlier this year to Albacora.

The yard is also building smaller trawlers for Spanish owners, but these are the last fishing vessels currently on the yard's order book.

"These seiners are vessels that are practically always at sea, " Ernesto Seidel of Barreras tells FNI.

"They leave the yard and, as they are working on the other side of the world, they never come back. So, any changes are done far away from us here as anything that needs to be fixed is done wherever they are working.

"These ships are very well maintained and they are manned by expert crews, who are used to improvising on the fishing grounds under difficult conditions." Barreras has a quality control department which also takes care of warranties after deliveries "They have less work to do with tuna seiners than with any other kind of vessel, " Ernesto Seidel says.

Although 2003 was a record year for shipbuilding worldwide, activity in Europe is now at a minimum as yards find it harder to compete with Asian prices.

"There is a big difference and it is impossible to compete with China, but we can compete on complex, hightech, vessels." Ernesto Seidel says that there is a strong possibility of joint work with yards overseas, with the Barreras yard completing hulls built elsewhere.

He admits there is a perception that the yard builds only tuna seiners, but that this is wrong.

"We have built ships of every kind ö LPG vessels, chemical tankers, ro-ro ships, cable layers, tuna ships and trawlers, " he says. "We have the expertise here to build any kind of vessel."

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We build more than just purse seiners!