Urban and socioeconomic impacts of the port and industrial project of Sines Andreia Filipe [email protected] Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisboa, Portugal December 2016 Abstract The construction of the port of Sines, which began in 1973, caused profound changes in the Sines area, both at an urban level and a socioeconomic level. These changes were of an unprecedented scale in Portugal in a relatively short period of time. Today the Sines area is significantly different from what it was 40 years ago. This context generated the interest in studying this project’s impact on the urban formation of the Sines area, as well as the social and economic dynamics that it introduced. Therefore, this dissertation aims to characterize and identify the main urban, social and economic changes to the Sines area that resulted from the construction and operation of the large port and industrial complex in Sines. The understanding of the links between the project of Sines and the changes that occurred in the Sines area resulted, at an initial stage, from researching the evolution of the project and the Sines area, achieved through the conduction of interviews of people involved in the project’s implementation and the urban planning of the area, and in a subsequent stage, from the research and statistical interpretation of the socio-economic variables and interpretation of the changes in the land use of the Sines area, during the various phases of its evolution in the decade of 70, 80, 90, 2000 and lastly the year 2014. The results of this analysis demonstrate that the Sines Port project introduced transformations that clearly benefited the Sines area in the three components that are the focus of this study namely, social, economic and urban. This conclusion is evident because the municipalities of the Sines area, namely Santiago do Cacém and Sines have a more urban setting and offer better living conditions to its habitants when compared to the other locations and, or areas of the Alentejo region. Therefore it may be said that the Sines Port project is the “driver” of the development of the Sines area. However, the city councils of the municipalities in the Sines area have been making an effort to disassociate themselves from the port complex by promoting various cultural events such as the World Music Festival in Sines that leads to associating the city to this festival rather than linking it to the port. These efforts have been successful especially with the younger generations. Keywords: Sines Port; Sines; Port and industrial complex; Socioeconomic Impact; Urban Impact 1. Introduction industrial project in the Sines area by investigating the evolution and relationship between the two The development of the port and industry of the principal objects of this study: the city and the port. Sines area brought about significant transformations The applied methodology consisted of, at an to the region at a territorial level, by redefining the initial stage, capturing relevant knowledge from the preexisting guidelines of the urban expansion, and experience of several individuals who were at a socio-economic level, where industry replaced involved in this project at various levels, thereby the local way of life, which consisted primarily of enriching the study with the point of view of its fishing and agriculture. actors. This study aims to identify the main urban, In a second phase, statistical data on population, social and economic changes that resulted from the education, employment, housing and businesses was construction and operation of a large port and gathered, organized and analyzed in order to 1 understand the socio-economic dynamics from the Portuguese revolution of April 25, 1974, the Sines beginning of the construction of the Sines project project had a troubled start. Thus, the port only and how those may have been influenced by it. commenced its commercial operation in 1978 with Thirdly, a territorial analysis was carried out. the beginning of the operation of the liquid bulk Territorial schemes spaced out by 10 years and terminal. This terminal is responsible for the obtained by cartography were prepared and movement of crude, refined products, liquefied interpreted. gases and other liquid bulks and serves the Sines Finally, the relationships of the gathered data refinery, petrochemicals, resins factory, amongst from the two analyses and the interviews were other industries. investigated and the negative and positive impacts In 1981 the operation of the petrochemical were identified and are confronted. terminal starts which, as the name implies, is a facility for handling and transporting petrochemical 2. Sines Port products to the plant owned by Repsol Polímeros, The Sines project appears in the then which also runs this terminal. Gornment’s third Development Plan, drawn up in In 1992 the multipurpose terminal of Sines the 60’s and one of its pillars was the construction began operating and it is allocated to handle dry and operation of a large deep-water port associated bulk, general and roll on roll off “ro-ro” cargo. with a petrochemical and industrial complex in the In 2003 the natural gas terminal started its old fishing village of Sines located on the coast of activity and is operated by the company REN the Atlantic. In 1971 the "Study for a location of a Atlântico under a private use concession. concentrated area of a base industry" was approved. Finally, the container terminal started its This report justified the choice of Sines village for operation in 2004 and is operated by the company the establishment of this project for the following Port Singapore Authority Sines under a public reasons: service concession. ! The natural advantage of the sea depth at Thus, a port that was originally intended to be a this location, constituted ideal conditions for a deep- discharge port of fossil fuels and to serve the water port; refinery and petrochemical industries, has ! The large availability of land and lower broadened its activity to other areas. In 2014, cost of expropriation in comparison to the other 48.1% of the cargo handled in Sines corresponded locations that were considered; to liquid bulk, 38.5% corresponded to containerized ! The geographic proximity to the pyrites cargo, followed by bulk solids, which represents exploration mines which were located in Aljustrel 13% of the total load, and finally 0.4% of the load is and the possibility of processing them in Sines; fractionated [3]. ! The location which presented a lower risk In 2014 the port of Sines was also the national of pollution; leader in cargo handled, representing 43.4% of the ! The absence of pre-existing territorial country’s port movement, followed by the port of conditions and or obstructions. Leixões, with 20.6%, and the port of Lisbon, with At the same time, the choice of Sines was also 13,3% [4]. an attempt to industrialize the Alentejo an extremely In the Iberian ranking, Sines occupied the fourth underdeveloped region and, at a national level, also position in 2014, both in the movement of goods attempted to internationalize the Portuguese market and in the handling of containers, having in both [1]. cases Algeciras, Valencia and Barcelona ports as In 1973 the Sines Area General Plan is competitors. [5] presented. This plan, developed by SAO, At the European level the port of Sines was the established the organization of the port and port with higher container handling growth in 2014, industrial areas and also defined the creation of a with an approximate growth percentage of 32%. new urban center, south of the Santo André Lagoon This growth allowed it to reach 19th place in the and north of Sines [2]. That same year the ranking of European ports with the largest construction of the Sines project begins. movement of containerized cargo [6]. Due to the global oil crisis of 1973 and the 2 The port of Sines also figured in 97th place at attracted people from all over the country. However, the end of 2014 in the "Container Management much of the new population of the Sines area came World Top Container Ports 2015," ranking of the from the once Portuguese colonies Angola and world's largest cargo handling ports [5]. Mozambique. Over the 70’s decade the number of workers in 3. The evolution of the Sines Port and the Sines area increased. The resident population in the Sines area Sines went from 7550 inhabitants in 1970 to 12075 in 1981, resulting in an increase of 60% of the 3.1. The 70’s population, well above the national average (14%). Before the construction of the port and This sudden increase in the population of the industrial complex, the Sines area was Sines area and the delay in the construction of underdeveloped. Vila Nova de Santo André was just houses in Santo André led to an increase of illegal an area of land in which, at that time, there was one housing in the Sines village and to the increase of house (Figure 3.1). Sines was essentially a fishing the rent prices. village, lackjng sufficient housing, services, Additionally, the lack of infrastructures, commerce or infrastructure, and where in the facilities and services in the area led to increased summer there was some tourism. Santiago do costs of living in both municipalities, including the Cacém held the role of "central place" due to the price of food. existence of infrastructures, facilities and services that were missing in the adjacent areas, and whose main economic activity was agriculture [2]. After the approval of the report on the implantation of a base industrial area in 1971, the office responsible for the Sines area was created, called the Sines Area Office (SAO).