Sines Is Planning a Quay That Can Take Military Ships, and Zero Argues Offshore Wind Deserves First Claim on It
The environmental study for the Port of Sines' new general cargo quay leaves its final use open, from wind turbines to car shipments to occasional military mobility. The port authority says no military use is intended.
The new quay planned for the Port of Sines should be put to work first for offshore wind, the environmental association Zero said on Thursday, arguing that the project's environmental study still leaves open what the structure is actually for, including occasional use by the military.
Zero set out its position in a statement reported by Lusa, after the public consultation on the Estudo de Impacte Ambiental (Environmental Impact Study, EIA) for the Novo Cais de Carga Geral (New General Cargo Quay) closed on 9 September. The quay is promoted by the Administração dos Portos de Sines e do Algarve (Sines and Algarve Ports Authority, APS).
A quay with no settled purpose
According to Zero, the EIA "recognises that the final use" of the quay "remains to be defined". The study allows for offshore renewables, agri-food bulk cargo, roll-on roll-off car shipments and dual civil and military use all at once. For Zero, "this lack of definition is decisive", because a port built to operate for decades "cannot be assessed as if all possible uses had the same impacts".
The association says the quay's high load capacity, large reclaimed yards and rail access suit the offshore wind industry. It wants those features used to build industrial capacity in Portugal (assembly, component integration, maintenance, repair and specialist engineering) so that the country does not end up merely offering "port, land and energy" for equipment made elsewhere to be transhipped.
Zero welcomed the planned rail spur running straight onto the quay, but said electrification and energy storage are still "insufficiently defined". It also questioned how the climate and cumulative impacts were assessed, both for the quay and for a separate extension of the East Breakwater (Molhe Leste), which was also out for consultation. It would accept a favourable, conditional environmental decision on the breakwater, but wants the two projects assessed together. Zero says it does not reject new port capacity in Sines; the environmental case, it argues, "depends on the use" the quay is given.
The military question
The dual-use clause has been controversial since August. The EIA, as quoted by Lusa, says the quay must meet civil and military requirements, meaning it "may be used both for civil purposes and for occasional support to military mobility operations". The same document says this "does not correspond to the installation of a permanent military infrastructure nor to exclusive military activities".
On 17 August Bloco de Esquerda (Left Bloc) MP Fabian Figueiredo asked the Ministry of Defence who had decided to give the quay a military component and whether it tied Sines into a wider NATO logistics network.
The port authority answered in a statement on its website on 2 September. It said the existing multipurpose terminal can handle current volumes without constraint, and that the new quay is meant to be ready in case industrial projects in the Sines Industrial and Logistics Zone (ZILS) need more capacity. Under EU guidance for projects that receive funding, APS said, the quay must be able to receive military ships. But it was designed for civil use, "there is no intention" of using it for military purposes, and no military base is planned in Sines. The construction tender is not due to be launched in the short term and will only go ahead if traffic requires it.
The port's chairman, Pedro do Ó Ramos, had sounded less distant last November. In an interview with Jornal de Negócios and Antena 1 he put the cost at around 90 million euros and said the quay would let Sines help Portugal meet its NATO defence-spending commitments. "Let us hope it is not for warlike use, but obviously we have to be prepared for that," he said. Portos 5+, the government's port strategy to 2035 approved in July 2025, already provides for Sines to consolidate a dual civil and military role, the newspaper reported.
A final environmental decision on the quay and on the breakwater extension is still to come. Sines is also where Portugal is preparing its bid for an EU AI gigafactory.
