A German company has launched an auction for the equipment of Spain's defunct shipbuilder La Naval.

Online auction house Surplex is selling more than 100 items, including two cranes, a plasma cutter and other machinery.

The Sestao yard closed in 2018 after running up losses and debt in tough European shipbuilding markets.

La Naval has built offshore vessels, ferries, pipe-layers and an LNG carrier for Knutsen OAS Shipping in its 100-year history.

Clarksons lists one ship still to be delivered from the yard, Van Oord's dredger Vor Alexia, due in January 2022.

The 280,000m2 facility is divided into various workshops and warehouses.

Site has to be cleared

"After closing down the operation, the site now needs to be cleared and the machinery sold," Surplex said.

There is a 30 November deadline for any deals.

An inspection of the lots is possible by appointment, the auction house added.

Spain's minister of economic development, Arantxa Tapia, has said that an offshore wind farm company is interested in the land.

The yard is now owned by the logistics company VGP, which won a bid for the site in March.

Sestao City Council rules state that 51% of the land must be kept for industrial use, and VGP is in talks with interested parties.

It is thought these include groups interested in continuing shipbuilding at La Naval.

The yard was formerly the civil shipbuilding wing of state-owned group Izar.

Before its 2018 closure, the plant on the left bank of the Nervion river had around 180 permanent workers.

La Naval was estimated to have €150m (then $177m) of bank debt in addition to losses of €80m sustained over the previous two years.