Fincantieri, who in France fear for the sale of Fremm to Morocco
After Egypt and Indonesia, Fincantieri aims to sell Fremm frigates to Morocco. Is the rival Naval Group in danger? As the French newspaper La Tribune broke out…
Morocco close to buying two Fremm frigates from Fincantieri?
After Egypt and Indonesia, the Trieste shipbuilding group aims to sell the Fremm frigates in Morocco, La Tribune reported yesterday , The French newspaper
In fact, we recall that after the contract signed on 10 June with Indonesia for the supply of 6 Fremm class frigates, the modernization and sale of 2 Maestrale class frigates, Fincantieri is on the final list to win a new order also in Greece.
Between orders and options, the Fincantieri project brought 30 ships to the market for various foreign navies as well as for the national one.
Yes, because in addition to the Indonesian order, there is a contract with the US Navy for the supply of 10 missile-launching frigates – of which 8 still in option – and the 2 Fremms sold to Egypt (plus 2 optional) . Without forgetting the 10 units – of which 8 in service plus 2 under construction to replace those sold to Egypt – for the Italian Navy.
But for the frigates of the group led by Giuseppe Bono there could be new orders on the horizon.
As Rid pointed out at the beginning of July, “Morocco, which, let us remember, has a French Fremm in service, would like to purchase 2 more units, but this time in an Italian (antisom) configuration. The interest is concrete and discussions with Fincantieri are underway ”. ( Here the in-depth analysis of Start on all the States that want the Fremm) .
For La Tribune , "a new order to the Italian shipyard, especially in Morocco, would not only create havoc in France, but would be perceived as a real slap in the face in Paris in front of Rabat, with which, at the moment, there is a frost in relationships ".
All the details.
SALE FOR FINCANTIERI IN MOROCCO?
The French newspaper reported that Fincantieri is discussing the sale of two Fremm frigates with Morocco. "The Royal Navy seeks to increase its defense and interdiction capabilities at sea, both in the Mediterranean Sea (from its naval base of Saffron Sagir) and on its Atlantic coast, where Rabat plans to build a new port for its ships to Safi from 2025 ”, explains La Tribune . If this is successful, it would be surprising. And this is because "Italy has also equipped Algeria, which is not exactly an ally of Morocco", points out the newspaper.
BECAUSE IT WOULD BE A BLAME FOR THE ITALIAN DEFENSE INDUSTRY
“In addition to Leonardo's helicopters, which created a mixed Italian-Algerian company dedicated to the production of light and medium helicopters at the industrial site of Aïn Arnat (AW109, AW101 and AW139), Rome equips the Algerian navy. In 2011, the Algerian navy bought a helicopter carrier (Kalaat Béni Abbès) from Fincantieri for 420 million euros, then in 2013 it selected Intermarine for its minehunter project (three units). In 2012 Algeria was the first customer of the Italian war industry ”, La Tribune remarked .
THE DEFEAT OF NAVAL GROUP
Therefore, the French newspaper could not help but notice the defeat that such a prospect would represent for Fincantieri's rival from across the Alps.
“Naval Group, which sold a French Fremm (Aquitaine Class) ordered in 2007, appears to have completely fallen from the clouds, after the first rumors on social networks and in the press in early July,” La Tribune points out . “Within the Navy group, this announcement created an uproar that lasted two weeks. Naval Group will send a delegation to Morocco early next week to assess the damage: are the Italians pushing for an unsolicited offer or has Morocco actually started the talks? ”Asks La Tribune .
Finally, we recall that Fincantieri and Naval Group are partners with the equal joint venture Naviris, operational since January 2020. At the end of January Fincantieri collected the stop on the acquisition of the French shipyards Chantiers de l'Atlantique (formerly Stx France of which Naval Group is shareholder with 11%). With the stop to the operation, the question was raised about the future of Naviris. But the Chantiers de l'Atlantique dossier is a “separate” dossier from the Naviris one, a spokesman for Naval Group stressed. Meanwhile Naviris will work on the European Patrol Corvette (Epc) program, the most important naval initiative within the European Permanent Structured Cooperation (Pesco) project.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/fincantieri-chi-in-francia-teme-per-la-vendita-delle-fremm-al-marocco/ on Wed, 21 Jul 2021 09:53:29 +0000.