Over 2200 trade specialists took part in the various areas and presentations at the BEC
The 20th SINAVAL ELITE fair of the shipping, maritime, port and fishing industries organised by Bilbao Exhibition Centre has ended its three-day run with the participation of almost 1700 trade specialists. For its part the Bilbao Marine Energy Week renewable energy conference attracted more than 500 attendees. The joint staging of these two events created the strategic framework for meetings between the maritime and energy industries that was highly important for the trade.
SINAVAL ELITE is open exclusively to the trade. Domestic attendees came mainly from the Basque Autonomous Community, Galicia, Barcelona, Navarre and Madrid, and foreign visitors from France, Germany, Belgium, Portugal, Norway, the USA, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, South Korea and Japan. Non-Spanish visitors accounted for 10% of the total attendees.
The commercial exhibition based in the Luxua Hall of the BEC, featured 156 firms from 15 countries, belonging mainly to the fishing, ports, shipbuilding and offshore renewable energy industries.
Exhibitors from the ports industry included the Basque Government Department of Ports, the Port Authority of Bilbao, Uniport, IDOM (a key company in organising this international event) and Prosertek. The shipbuilding industry featured Spanish shipowners and members of ANAVE (Association of Spanish Shipowners) along with shipyards such as Zamakona, Gondán, Construcciones Navales del Norte (La Naval), Murueta, Balenciaga and Piriou. The offshore energy industry was represented by offshore wind, wave and Marine current power companies, and the fishing industry by the Fishing Federations of Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, Azti, Anabac and Oppao plus foreign firms based in France, the USA and Korea.
Talks and meetings
One of the main attractions of SINAVAL ELITE is its range of trade meetings aimed at reaching business agreements. At this edition the firms involved included Astilleros TMM and Marecsca, BlueMarine, Grupo Zemza, Evya, Portexa, Intermar, Servicios Navales e industriales, the National Port authority, RMK Sociedad Portuaria Regional de Cartagena, Tayrona Offshore, the Ministry of Transport and Public Works of Ecuador and BlueFish. Delegations of VIP international purchasers attended from Mexico, Chile, Italy, Colombia, Turkey, France, Peru and Ecuador.
There were also keynote presentations by the fishing industry, including a talk on the Maritime Navigation Act given by UNIPORT, which was supplemented by a highly interesting workshop on international ports focusing on “The Landing Obligation in the New Common Fisheries Policy”, which was attended by over 300 specialists, half of them from outside Spain. At this presentation Azti (a technology centre specialising in foodstuffs and Marine innovation) and the Basque Government announced new solutions and practices for dealing with by-catches.
Moreover, the talk on “Tuna Fishing Agreements” organised by Anabac (National Association of Freezer Tuna Vessel Owners) and the Basque Government featured three special speakers: the Fisheries Minister of the Seychelles, the Fisheries Minister of Madagascar and Mr. Stefaan Depypere, Director International Affairs and Markets, DG MARE – European Commission, who spoke on the need to promote fishing agreements as the best way of combating unregulated illegal fishing.
During SINAVAL ELITE a number of successful technological innovation projects were also presented, such as Gestoil, an energy efficiency plan developed by three vessels based in Ondarroa with the participation of AZTI which enables substantial savings to be made on annual fuel consumption by fishing vessels.
On the institutional side, Basque Government Deputy Minister for Industry Javier Zarraonaindia in his opening address referred to Sinaval as “an exceptional showcase for the maritime industry of the Basque Country, which is a major power in offshore energy, poor infrastructures, fishing and shipbuilding. SINAVAL is the ideal forum for enhancing the international networking so necessary to our industry“.
BILBAO MARINE ENERGY WEEK
Over 500 delegates from a number of countries and technology-based companies attended Bilbao Marine Energy Week, the offshore energy conference organised by EVE, Tecnalia and the BEC, with the patronage of Iberdrola. Day one of the event was given over to international sectoral meetings, including the Renewable Energy Assembly, at which Roberto Legaz, the chair of APPA (Association of Renewable Energy Producers), highlighted the importance of “continuing to stress R&D as the driving force for a future that offers great opportunities in terms of energy, industry and technology”.
Day two was devoted to offshore wind power. Basque Government Deputy Minister for Industry Javier Zarraonaindia referred to the development of the sector as a renewable energy source with important prospects for Basque firms. Leading firms from the energy industry involved in pioneering offshore wind power projects took part in the event, including Iberdrola, Gamesa, Alstom, Areva Wind, Vestas and Dong. They all stressed the importance of technological development in reducing costs.
On day three the focus was on ocean energy, particularly wave energy.
Finally, it must be highlighted that the Bilbao Marine Energy Week is southern Europe’s biggest offshore energy conference. The event ended with two technical visits to the Mutriku wave energy plant, a pioneer on mainland Europe in that it operates on a commercial basis and uploads all the energy that it produces to the grid, and to the Bimep research centre in Armintza, which seeks to foster technological innovation and excellence in research with a view to transferring technology from all over the world to the Basque Country and checking its actual worth under real marine conditions.
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