The economy of Ferrol knows the sea. The activity of its large shipyards, now integrated into the IZAR group, has scripted its crises and good adventures in recent centuries, and especially since the reign of Charles III.
Ferrol, in its current conception, was born in the 18th century by the Bourbons, with a clearly military and naval purpose, centering its economic life around the shipyards. The twentieth century begins in Ferrol as an extension of the stagnation produced in recent years, in which the naval activity was practically nil.
The first industries settled in Ferrol in the 40s and it is in this decade when the private shipyard Astano in Fene is established, while the Ferrol´s shipyard becomes part of the National Company of Bazán. Then begins the most important stage of economic expansion of the city, based on shipbuilding, consisting of these large shipyards and the auxiliary companies created around it and of which lived the greatest number of inhabitants of the region.
The sector continues to grow thanks to the existing demand of large tonnage vessels until the end of the 70s the definitive decline of the naval industry caused by the adjustments of work in the EU with the entry of Spain into it.
The shipyards are the tenth naval group in the world and the second in Europe. The new group is divided into four business lines; naval construction, propulsion, repairs and weapons systems, playing the Ferrol sea a prominent role in the first three. Ferrol´s Shipyards, has managed to survive the crisis of the European naval industry, also aspiring to lead the construction of ships in Europe.