The Rio Santiago Shipyard is a
shipyard
A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance ...
located in the city of
Ensenada, Buenos Aires Province
Ensenada () is a city and port in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, located around the Ensenada de Barragán. It has 31,031 inhabitants as per the . It is the capital of Ensenada Partido, and
together with Berisso Partido they are the main sub ...
at the shores of the Santiago River. Currently owned by the Government of Buenos Aires Province, it has been one of the major active and important shipyards in
Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived ...
. Founded in 1953, it has realized diverse functions in the naval, industrial and railroad sectors. In its golden age the shipyard reached 8,000 workers on double shift. In 2008 relies on 2,700 workers.
The most famous work was the construction, in 1962, of the
Fragata Libertad
ARA ''Libertad'' (Q-2) is a steel- hulled, full-rigged, class "A" sailing ship that serves as a school vessel in the Argentine Navy. One of the largest and fastest tall ships in the world, holder of several speed records, she was designed and b ...
. In 1966 this vessel obtained the world speed record in
sailing
Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' ( sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' ( iceboat) or on ''land'' ( land yacht) over a chose ...
on its voyage across the
North Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe and ...
, covering a distance of in 8 days and 12 hours. The race began in
Cape Race
Cape Race is a point of land located at the southeastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland, in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Its name is thought to come from the original Portuguese name for this cape, "Raso", mea ...
, Canada and ended at an imaginary line set between
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...
and
Liverpool
Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...
.
Organization
It has a Technical management staff that operates by departments which manage the different areas of work, such as preparing ships, armament, electricity, planning of water ways, machinery, structure, basic projects, etcetera. It also has a Department of Quality Control that verifies that works stay within the International Norms and Registries.
It has a Technical management staff that operates by departments which manage the different areas of work, such as preparing ships, armament, electricity, planning of water ways, machinery, structure, basic projects, etcetera. It also has a Department of Quality Control that verifies that works stay within the International Norms and Registries.
History
The Rio Santiago Shipyard started its activities on June 15 of 1953, by the Decree N° 10.627 that established the creation of "Astilleros y Fábricas Navales del Estado (AFNE)", a company integrated by the "Astillero Río Santiago (ARS)" and by the "Fábrica Naval de Explosivos Azul (FANAZUL)", dependent of the Admiralty (Spanish: "Ministerio de Marina").
When the construction was completed, the Rio Santiago Shipyard had many workshops that produced essential elements. These include a machine shop for bolts and adjustments, furnaces for iron and copper, electronics, and sections for carpentry and paint.
It had a sustained growth during its first years. In 1969 it modified its legal status and became a State Anonymous Society. Between 1970 and 1976, the shipyard signed and started the construction of five cargo ships each of 9,000 tons built for the
Empresa Líneas Marítimas Argentinas (ELMA), two tankers of 60,000 tons each for
YPF, two bulk-carriers with 23,700 tons of displacement and four cargo ships with 14,450 tons of displacement, also for ELMA.
It constructed diesel motors and cranes for its ships and other shipyards and train motors for
Ferrocarriles Argentinos
Ferrocarriles Argentinos (abbreviated as FA; ) was a state-owned company that managed the entire Argentine railway system for nearly 45 years. It was formed in 1948 when all the private railway companies were nationalised during Juan Perón's fir ...
(the State-owned
rail transport company of Argentina). It also constructed elements for hydraulic turbines, nuclear components (through a license with Atomic Energy of Canada), and
bogies
A bogie ( ) (in some senses called a truck in North American English) is a chassis or framework that carries a wheelset, attached to a vehicle—a modular subassembly of wheels and axles. Bogies take various forms in various modes of tran ...
for railroads (through a license with American Steel Foundry).
In the mid-1970s it employed approximately 5,500 employees and nearly 3,000 employees hired by distant client companies that directly affected production.
This factory, the largest in Argentina, suffered its worst crisis in the 1990s when it almost became private, finally ending up as a part of the Buenos Aires province.
In the 21st century

After suffering the third change of direction in two years, the Rio Santiago Shipyard was back to work at full capacity for the first time in two decades. After president of Venezuela
Hugo Chávez
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (; 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician who was president of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013, except for a brief period in 2002. Chávez was also leader of the Fifth Repub ...
visited the graveyard in 2005, both governments signed contracts to provide eight tanks for the Venezuelan oil company. Construction of the first block of the "Eva Perón" started on 18 January, one of the two platforms being built for
PDVSA
Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA, ) (English: Petroleum of Venezuela) is the Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural gas company. It has activities in exploration, production, refining and exporting oil as well as exploration and production ...
. Nevertheless, by 2015 only one of those eight ships had been built, but they were never inaugurated.
In March 2006, the "Madrisa" was launched, a cargo ship, technically called bulk carrier, built for a German customer. The shipyard had been given offers to build
oil platforms
An oil platform (or oil rig, offshore platform, oil production platform, and similar terms) is a large structure with facilities to extract and process petroleum and natural gas that lie in rock formations beneath the seabed. Many oil platfo ...
that will require, in case the job was acquired, that it shared part of the work with another shipyard that was currently closed. The Corrientes Shipyard was being kept in mind for this job, since it already has experience building offshore platforms for
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...
.
In September 2010, signed a preliminary agreement with
Ukrainian
Ukrainian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Ukraine
* Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe
* Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine
* Som ...
shipyard
Chernomorsky Shipbuilding in order to gain experience in the construction of
ice class
Ice class refers to a notation assigned by a classification society or a national authority to denote the additional level of strengthening as well as other arrangements that enable a ship to navigate through sea ice. Some ice classes also have r ...
ships.
In November 2015 it was announced that the ARS shipyard will build 2 small ships for the Argentine Navy, the first ones after 32 years. The design, named LICA ( ''Lancha de Instrucción de Cadetes de la Armada'') was developed by the shipyard's engineering team. It was expected that construction will start in early 2016.
In August 2018, the company suffered multiple dismissals and, faced with the possible closure of the Río Santiago Shipyard plant, the workers mobilized in the city of La Plata to defend their jobs. The response of the provincial government, was the repression with rubber bullets and tear gas that caused serious incidents, registering several injured people.
La Plata: la Policía reprimió una protesta de trabajadores de Astillero Río Santiago
21 Aug 2018 on Cronista.com
Location
The shipyard is situated in the city of Ensenada, Argentina
Ensenada () is a city and port in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, located around the Ensenada de Barragán. It has 31,031 inhabitants as per the . It is the capital of Ensenada Partido, and
together with Berisso Partido they are the main sub ...
at the shores of the Santiago River, in front of the Escuela Naval Militar (Military Naval School). The Rio Santiago Shipyard's area is 229 hectares
The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...
and , but the surface area affected by the industrial work is approximately 100 hectares. The buildings used to be united by a series of tunnels for the electric, water vapor, and compressed air feeders, which reach a length of more than five kilometers.
The holding beaches for materials and parking lots are covered with asphalt covering a surface area of 40,000 square meters, and the internal streets of the shipyard are also covered in asphalt totaling 70,000 square meters. It also has seven kilometers of internal railroads that connect with the Ensenada city branch.
Main products
Warships
* ''Azopardo'' class frigates (2)
* Patrol ship
A patrol boat (also referred to as a patrol craft, patrol ship, or patrol vessel) is a relatively small naval vessel generally designed for coastal defence, border security, or law enforcement. There are many designs for patrol boats, and they ...
s ARA ''King'' and ARA ''Murature''
* Landing ship
An amphibious warfare ship (or amphib) is an amphibious vehicle warship employed to land and support ground forces, such as marines, on enemy territory during an amphibious assault.
Specialized shipping can be divided into two types, most crud ...
B.D.T. ARA ''Cabo San Antonio''
* Destroyer Type 42 ARA ''Santísima Trinidad''
* Corvettes
A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the sloo ...
Type MEKO 140
The MEKO 140 is a frigate/corvette design by the German Blohm + Voss shipyard as part of the MEKO family of vessels. The MEKO 140 is a development of the Portuguese Navy's s designed by the Portuguese naval engineer Rogério de Oliveira in the la ...
(6)
Merchant Ships
* Multipurpose Ships
* Product Holding Ships
* Container Ships
* Grain Ships
Smaller ships
* Fishing boat type ARS LPA-720 (2 man craft)
* Naval Service Patrol (6 man craft)
* Hydrographic research boat ARA ''Cormorán'' (1964)
Sail training ship
The frigate ARA Libertad (Q-2) was the third ship built by the shipyard; delivered to the Argentine Navy
The Argentine Navy (ARA; es, Armada de la República Argentina). This forms the basis for the navy's ship prefix "ARA". is the navy of Argentina. It is one of the three branches of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic, together with t ...
in 1962, she made her first voyage in 1963.
Since its commission she covered more than around the world and spent about 17 years at sea.
She has been used for training for nearly 11,000 officers of the Argentine Navy
The Argentine Navy (ARA; es, Armada de la República Argentina). This forms the basis for the navy's ship prefix "ARA". is the navy of Argentina. It is one of the three branches of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic, together with t ...
.
See also
* ARA Libertad (Q-2)
* List of shipyards of Argentina
References
Notes
Bibliography
Further reading
*
*
*
External links
*
Geographic Satellite Image
Santiago River Shipyard Activities
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rio Santiago Shipyard
Shipyards of Argentina
Defense companies of Argentina
Rolling stock manufacturers of Argentina
Manufacturing companies established in 1953
Argentine companies established in 1953