The Minister of Sea, Ricardo Serrão Santos, accompanied by the General Director of DGRM, José Carlos Simão, and by the APSS Administrator, José Emílio Castel-Branco, visited Lisnave shipyard in the Port of Setúbal and the new cruise ship "Vasco da Gama" which is in this shipyard to complete its modernization, and were received by the Chairman of Lisnave, José António Rodrigues, and by the entrepreneur Mário Ferreira.

During the visit, the Minister of Sea had the opportunity to verify the potentialities of the shipyard located in the Sado river estuary, dedicated to the maintenance and naval repair of the great ships of the merchant navy and of great maritime structures for offshore activities, where it has six docks with capacity up to 700.000 dwt and a whole set of workshops and services to respond to the most varied requests of the shipowners.

Lisnave provides specialised services to a wide portfolio of clients from ship-owners all over the world, and has increasingly focused on work on complex ships, such as LNG, LPG or cruise ships, as well as on the new aspects of Green Shipping and Circular Economy, such as emission control and ballast water systems, or even cutting-edge projects in technological control and digitalisation. An example of this is the new cruise ship of the "Mystic Ocean", the Vasco da Gama, which is finishing its modernization in Mitrena and which the Minister of the Sea also visited.

The ship Vasco da Gama was the last acquisition of the Mystic group, it has a capacity for more than a thousand passengers and about 550 crew members, it has 210 meters of length and 30 meters of mouth.

Among the various modernisation interventions, it is worth highlighting the conversion of the ship's machinery to Tier III with reduced emissions, the reconversion of the ballast, sewage and waste management systems, as well as a new global energy efficiency of the machinery and remaining equipment. This modernisation will allow the ship to sail in the regions of the planet with tighter control of environmental requirements, namely the Emission Control Areas and the Polar and Fjord areas in Norway.

Very relevant was the emphasis on the importance of the Portuguese business sector in this visit. From the outset, the visit took place to a Portuguese shipyard of reference, Lisnave, and visited the largest cruise ship flying the Portuguese flag, a ship belonging to the Portuguese shipowner Mario Ferreira. In the modernization of the Vasco da Gama ship, the participation of Portuguese companies in this transformation is also noteworthy, namely the Tecnoveritas company, responsible for the project to upgrade the machinery to Tier III, reducing emissions by 80%, as well as the new painting of the ship with the latest generation of antifouling paints, supplied by the national company Hempel.

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