Sines, a port city in southwestern Portugal, is emerging from a tourist destination into a next-generation industrial hub. The government appears to be reorganizing the city to shift an economy centered on tourism to a digital-based one.
According to Bloomberg News, large-scale investments are pouring into Sines. The Start - Up Campus, Europe's largest data center powered 100% by renewable energy using seawater, broke ground in Mar. with an €8.5 billion (about 14 trillion won) investment and has already signed lease contracts with global big tech companies including Nvidia and Microsoft (MS).
China's CALB, the world's No. 4 battery maker, is also said to be building its first plant in Europe in Sines with a €2 billion investment.
Sines is a port city about 160 kilometers south of the capital, Lisbon, and is also known for having Europe's longest coastline (64 kilometers). In the 1970s, the Portuguese government tried to activate the refining industry by building a cargo port and operating power plants in Sines, but the project lost momentum when the dictatorship collapsed in 1974.
Since then, Sines has relied on a beach-centered tourism industry, but the government is reportedly seeking another revival of Sines on the back of the artificial intelligence (AI) boom.
In fact, the scale of investment attracted to Sines and surrounding areas is said to reach 4.6% of Portugal's gross domestic product (GDP). Google is finishing laying a submarine cable on the Sines coast that connects Europe, South America, and Africa, and the Port of Singapore Authority (PSA), which oversees the operation of Sines Port, is making large-scale investments to expand capacity, including extending berth length and adding cargo-handling equipment.
Portugal's economy minister, Manuel Castro Almeida, has emphasized that "Sines is a new logistics hub linking the Atlantic and Europe and is at the center of the transformation of the national economic structure."
However, outdated infrastructure relative to the size of investment is cited as Sines' biggest weakness. As construction workers flock to the small city of about 15,000 people, the housing shortage is already worsening. If capital concentrates in foreign corporations, it cannot be ruled out that local development may effectively fall apart.
Ana Rodrigues, who works at a local museum in Sines, said, "My father's generation got jobs from port development, but when they all left in droves, the city deteriorated," adding, "I worry that after another 'brief boom,' the city will end up neglected again."
To make up for infrastructure limits, the government is first focusing on expanding transportation networks. An extension of the highway that connects Sines and Spain is underway, and a rail project that would cut cargo transport time by more than three hours is also reportedly under review.
Pedro do Ó Ramos, head of Portugal's port authority, explained, "In the past, people said there weren't enough transport options, but now we've reached the point where there are too many," adding, "Logistics demand is rising quickly to match."