A Cantanhede Metalworker Commits Two Million Euros to a Fourth Hall Because Defence Already Buys a Fifth of What It Makes

Vesam makes metal structures in Cantanhede, sells more than 95 percent of them abroad, and turns over close to 10 million euros a year. It is about to spend roughly two million of that on a fourth industrial hall, and the reason is that a fifth of its business is now defence.

The company expects to start building in October and to have the new unit fully operational by the middle of 2027, its founder and chief executive Filipe Santos told ECO. The hall adds more than 2,000 square metres and roughly doubles the area Vesam has for pre-assembly and testing, the stage the company describes as critical for the equipment it now takes on.

"For example, a Launch Pad Structure, once fabricated and before it is painted, has to be fully assembled and every connection tested," Santos said. "Vesam already does that, but with this new industrial hall we want to increase not just installed capacity but the efficiency of the production flows and the flexibility to take on larger projects."

Twenty percent, and the part nobody names

Defence already accounts for about 20 percent of turnover. Vesam works in two areas within it: metal structures for military naval construction, and the development and manufacture of structures and equipment associated with projectile launch systems. The company will not name customers or specific markets, citing the confidentiality of the sector, saying only that it works for large European integrators and reference firms in the defence industry, on projects mostly destined for European markets but often folded into programmes with global reach.

Delivery times run one to two years depending on complexity, and Santos says the cycles are shortening, which is itself the argument for more pre-assembly space. He expects defence to contribute more to results next year, driven by the increase in European investment, a growing number of projects at award and development stage, and simply more people knowing what Vesam can do.

Space is newer. Vesam describes itself as taking its first steps there, developing initial projects on infrastructure and equipment for space applications including structures for antennas, telescopes and associated platforms. It works as a supplier to the firms that hold the prime contracts rather than holding them itself, and the pitch is continuity: the engineering, complex-structure fabrication and equipment integration are the same skills the company already sells to aeronautics.

Made in Cantanhede, assembled elsewhere

All engineering, research and development and manufacturing happen in Portugal. Assembly happens in the final market, which for Vesam means the United Kingdom, Germany, France and the United States. The company has subsidiaries in France and the US to handle the commercial and administrative work in those two. In Africa it has specialised in bridges, and has now passed 200 designed, fabricated and assembled.

The expansion sits inside a wider repositioning. Portugal has drawn 5.84 billion euros of EU defence loans and set up an office to spend them, a new Iberian defence cluster named Portalegre as its first territory last week, and the state has declared a national public interest in assembling Embraer's Super Tucano at Beja. Vesam is the layer below all of that: a supplier that was already making aeronautical structures and has found the same customers buying different things.

What this means for expats

• Industrial hiring is moving inland: Cantanhede sits between Coimbra and the coast, and this is the fourth unit on the same site rather than a relocation.
• The skills in demand are welding, fitting and industrialisation: pre-assembly and testing capacity is what the investment buys, which is technician work rather than design work.
• Defence work carries confidentiality clauses: if you are recruited into this supply chain, expect restrictions on naming your employer's customers.
• Exports are the model: more than 95 percent of activity is international, so the company's fortunes track European and North American order books rather than Portuguese demand.
• Timing: construction from October, full operation by mid-2027, so recruitment for the new hall is a 2027 story.