La Ciotat Shipyards

La Ciotat Shipyards have witnessed the success of a voluntarist and partnership based policy of the reindustrialisation of the site formerly geared towards the construction of large industrial units (oil and LNG tankers, etc.) through a repositioning in the sector of repair, servicing and maintenance of large yachts.

The industrial history could have ended in 1988 without the intervention of a small group of 105 employees determined to save their worktool and to give an industrial and maritime future to the site. Like a David against Goliath remake, these “105 diehards” eventually win the fight.

On August 17 1994, an agreement was signed between the Government Representative, the Presidents of the Region and the Department, the Mayor of La Ciotat and Mr. Pierre Tidda representing the workers. This agreement, still acting as a true “Constitution” of the site to this day, is a commitment between the signatories based on two principles:

• Maintaining an industrial and maritime vocation for the site
• The unicity of its management

SEMIDEP-Ciotat is created in the aftermath to follow this ambitious roadmap and pilot the project, according to the principles of public service.

in 1978, the oil crisis and competition from Asia led to the first dismissals on the site. The production is again shifted towards the construction of oil tankers and other gas carriers, but also towards the repair of large vessels.

In 1982, the shipyards of Dunkerque, La Seyne sur Mer and La Ciotat are fused together in one company, the “Société des Chantiers du Nord et de la Méditerreanée” called NORMED. This unfortunate decision of the authorities, resulting from an incorrect strategic analysis, will seal the fate of the shipyards of La Ciotat.

On July 31 1988, the shipyards close-down … locking the “Monterrey”, still docked inside.

The shipyard of La Ciotat will continue to develop their activities and skills, despite frequent changes of majority shareholders and therefore names … After “Messageries Maritimes”, they become “Société Provençale de Construction Navale” (SPCN) then “Chantiers Navals de La Ciotat (CNC).

The ships designed are larger and larger, more and more numerous, more and more complex to manufacture: the last super tankers built in the shipyard of La Ciotat were about 320,000 tonnes! In 1973, more than 5000 workers and employees work on the site.

It was at this time that the site’s largest infrastructures were created, including the great dry dock with its 250-tonne crane and its two 500- and 660-tonne gantry cranes.

From the nineteenth century, the activity grows with the development of steam navigation and the opening of transit to the colonies. In 1835, theharbor capacity is doubled with the construction of the pier “Bérouard”. That same year, Louis Benet, son of a wealthy shipowner from La Ciotat, takes over a small sailboat shipyard, and turns it into a modern company. As a savvy businessman, Louis Benet brings engineers and propulsion systems from England, and launches in 1836, the first French steamship in the Mediterranean, “Le Phocéen I”. It is also on the shipyard of La Ciotat that will be launched in 1847 “Le Bonaparte”, first steamship with a propeller and an iron hull in the Mediterranean. In 1848-1851, the industrial crisis leads Louis Benet to sell his company to the National Courier.

The activity on the site begins in the fifteenth century with the construction of small fishing boats by local artisans. But soon these family businesses start to build “tartanes”, commercial cargo ships.