## 4 Case Studies--Seaport of Aveiro in Portugal and ASM Offshore
Considering the pioneering spirit and success on the part of this company, the opportunity arose to join a new European consortium, \"Windplus\". This consortium has developed a project known as \"WindFloat\", previously referred to in the \"Offshore Wind Energy Market\" section. The project was based on the development of a semi-submersible and floating platform, where a wind turbine was installed to produce offshore wind energy. In this project, the ASM Industries Group was responsible for the construction and supply of the prototype platform of the referred project for testing. Recently, in 2018, ASM Industries signed a new contract with this consortium, for the supply of two Windfloat platforms for a pre-commercial project in Viana do Castelo, with high power wind turbines (8.5 MW). Considering the evolution of the markets and in order to meet the needs of customers, the opportunity arose to found ASM II Offshore Industries, S.A., hereinafter referred to as ASM Offshore. This subsidiary of the holding company ASM Industries was founded in 2015 and its main objective is to monitor trends in the offshore wind energy market, as well as to create favorable conditions for the supply of large metal equipment for application in new offshore wind farms. With this transition, ASM Industries started to split into ASM Energia and ASM Offshore, having two manufacturing units. As regards ASM Energia, its plant is located in Sever do Vouga and is responsible for the production of onshore and tubular wind towers. This sub-holding produces more than 25,000 tons of steel and more than 640 sections of onshore towers per year. ASM Offshore is headquartered in a concession area in the Port of Aveiro (ZALI), and in this plant, offshore wind towers and foundations are produced. In 2018, the company invested more than 30 million euros, and began to develop these structures in 2019. Considering the objective of the developed study, it was considered essential to analyze the current business cycle of ASM Offshore, as well as the global business cycle in which ASM Offshore is inserted, in order to envision which are the best companies to interact with, and how the fact that these companies are established in the Port of Aveiro can benefit this entity, as well as the company in question. Regarding the ASM Offshore value chain and considering the environment in which it operates in the renewable energy sector, a general analysis of the value chain of the offshore wind energy market was carried out. Regarding the inputs associated with this process, all materials that allow obtaining the outputs are considered, which in this particular case, refers to obtaining the offshore wind turbine for energy production. Thus, it is assumed that the inputs related to this activity are the structures that make up the wind turbines, such as wind blades, wind towers, foundations, rotor, and generator, among others; as well as the components that form these structures, such as steel, cables, paints, screws, and supports, among others. In relation to the life cycle phases of the entire process, all activities that contribute to its implementation are considered, namely manufacture of the wind turbine components; turbine construction, assembly, and installation services; transportation of the various equipment; maintenance of wind farms and dismantling at the end of the structures life cycle. There are several companies responsible for these processes by which the raw material is moved and transformed until the final product is obtained. In Figure 3, information about the value chain associated with the technological market for offshore wind energy is presented in a succinct way. ASM Offshore emerges as one of the companies that supply some of the main components for the process previously analyzed, through the supply of wind towers, usually supplied to technologists, and offshore foundations, usually supplied directly to the end customer or installers [65,66].