ASTICAN - Astilleros Canarios S.A.

ASTICAN, Astilleros Canarios S.A., is a privately owned repair yard in the port of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands off the west coast of Africa. It became fully operative in 1976 and repairs, maintains and converts vessels of every type, along with structures, marine renewable energy devices and offshore units. About 180 vessels are handled a year. There is no graving dock and no floating dock. Ships are raised on a Syncrolift platform rated at 10,000 tonnes lifting capacity, for vessels of up to 36,000 DWT, and transferred to seven dry docking lanes ashore, so several hulls can be worked out of the water at once. Mobile cranes of up to 600 tonnes serve vessels on the hardstanding. Afloat, the yard's own repair piers carry drafts of 8 to 12 metres. Work sold includes dry docking and lifting operations, special periodical survey projects, steel, mechanical and thruster work, and underwater inspection in lieu of dry docking. The Astican Deepwater Quayside opened in November 2017 as extended berthing at the Reina Sofia Pier, with 13,100 square metres of surface and drafts of at least 19 metres, for inspection, repair and maintenance of offshore units and their equipment. Behind it an open-air storage area covers 6,000 square metres, more than 65 per cent of it bonded, so equipment held there is not liable to customs duty. The company also works in Tenerife with its own personnel and local subcontractors, where it offers storage space but no berth of its own.