Guido Crosetto versus Sébastien Lecornuthe Italian defense minister against his French colleague. Adolfo Urso versus Bruno Le Maire, the Minister of Enterprise and Made in Italy against the Transalpine Minister of Economy. Once again it is Italy-France on the naval arena, once again it is a battle between the two countries in terms of economy and industry. After fighting for control of the Chantiers de l’Atlantique, with the stop imposed by President Emmanuel Macron on the sale to Fincantieri of the company that builds cruise ships, the two countries are now on opposite sides of supporting their respective national companies in the conquest of a wealthy Greek military order. At stake is the tender called by the Greek government for the construction of three corvettes, worth 1.5 billion euros, which will be assigned in the first days of January. The Italian Fincantieri and the French Naval Group remained in the race against each other. With their respective governments very busy pressing the executive led by Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
In recent days, however, the Italians have made a move that could prove successful. Fincantieri has allied itself with the American group Onex, which controls the Greek shipyards of Elefsis precisely in view of the construction of the three corvettes. The two groups agreed to set up a corvette production and maintenance line. Onex is a US fund and asset manager that invests capital on behalf of its shareholders and clients around the world and recently acquired Elefsis Shipyards.
The agreement between Fincantieri and Onex Shipyards & Technologies Group provides, in the event of awarding the contract, the creation of a production and maintenance line for corvettes throughout their life cycle, located at the Elefsis shipyard together with the necessary upgrades, improvements, transfer of know-how and technology, equipment, which are estimated at around 80 million euros. Onex Naval and Maritime Elefsis Shipyards expects the creation of 2,500 new direct and indirect jobs in the shipbuilding sector. The alliance may be strengthened in view of future military and merchant vessel construction programmes.
In line with Fincantieri’s commitment to team up with the local industry ecosystem, last October the Italian group signed a series of memoranda of understanding with potential new Greek suppliers, thus laying the foundations for defining possible long-term business relationship.
The agreement was signed in Athens in the presence of the Minister of Development, Adonis Georgiadis, and the managing director of Fincantieri, Pierroberto Folgiero, the general manager of the Military Ships Division, Dario Deste and the president and CEO of Onex Shipyards & Technologies Group , Panos Xenokostas.
«Our construction strategy – commented Folgiero – is based on a proven model to increase the effectiveness of the local partner with the transfer of technology, leveraging synergies and interconnections between production in Italy and Greece with a long-term vision term”.
Xenokostas added: «We are joining forces with a global leader in the sector such as Fincantieri, forming a strong Italian-Greek-American alliance based in Greece and in the country of shipyards. Today’s agreement to develop a manufacturing and support base for the state-of-the-art Doha-class corvette build line is just the beginning. The transfer of know-how and the training of workers, technicians and managers of Elefsis Shipyards by Fincantieri is a heritage of national importance, much more than the relaunch of the shipbuilding industry. Greece is transforming into a regional hub for building and supporting defense platforms. The commitment of both groups is concentrated on the Hellenic Navy and on the allied fleets of the region, including the American one”.