Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire was a French shipbuilding company of the late 19th and early 20th century.

ACL was formed in 1881 in Nantes

Nantes

Nantes is a city in western France, located on the Loire River, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the 6th largest in France, while its metropolitan area ranks 8th with over 800,000 inhabitants....

 by Jollet Babin to take advantage of the expansion of the French Navy.

The River Loire was already a major site for shipbuilding, with Dubigeon at Nantes and Chantiers de Penhoët and Saint-Nazaire

Saint-Nazaire

Saint-Nazaire , is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France.The town has a major harbour, on the right bank of the Loire River estuary, near the Atlantic Ocean. The town is at the south of the second-largest swamp in France, called "la Brière"...

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In 1881 Babin set up his shipyard at Prairie du Lac, near the Dubigeon yard, and the following year, in 1882, a second yard at St Nazaire adjacent to the C. Penhoët yard.
From the outset ACL focused on building warships for the French Navy, laying down capital ships at the St Nazaire site, closer to deep water, and medium–sized and small ships (cruisers, torpedo boats and, later, destroyers) at Nantes.

In 1901 ACL took over Normandy-Laporte at Rouen

Rouen

Rouen , in northern France on the River Seine, is the capital of the Haute-Normandie region and the historic capital city of Normandy. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe , it was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy in the Middle Ages...

 and built a factory for marine boilers and marine steam engine

Marine steam engine

A marine steam engine is a reciprocating steam engine that is used to power a ship or boat. Steam turbines and diesel engines largely replaced reciprocating steam engines in marine applications during the 20th century, so this article describes the more common types of marine steam engine in use...

s at Saint-Denis

Saint-Denis

Saint-Denis is a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. Saint-Denis is a sous-préfecture of the Seine-Saint-Denis département, being the seat of the Arrondissement of Saint-Denis....

 near Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

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In 1907 ACL at St Nazaire built two of the six Danton class battleship

Danton class battleship

The Danton class was a class of French battleships built between 1907–1911, which served in World War I. The six ships in the class were all pre-dreadnought battleships, the last of their kind produced in the French Navy.-Design and production:...

s, and in 1912 one of the three Bretagne class battleship

Bretagne class battleship

The Bretagne class battleships were the first "super-dreadnoughts" built for the French Navy during the First World War. The class comprised three vessels: Bretagne, the lead ship, Provence, and Lorraine. They were an improvement of the previous , and mounted ten guns instead of twelve guns as on...

s for the French Navy. All three ships served in World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

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Before World War II, ACL co-operated with C. Penhoët in building two of France’s four battleships, and had contracts for another, and two aircraft carriers, but these were not completed.

Also in the inter-war years ACL diversified into naval aviation, forming an aircraft manufacturing division in 1925, which became Loire Aviation in 1930.

After World War II and a decline in shipbuilding, ACL developed its link with C. Penhoët, and the two companies merged in 1955 to form Chantiers de l'Atlantique

Chantiers de l'Atlantique

Chantiers de l'Atlantique is part of the South Korean STX Shipbuilding Group and one of the world's largest shipyards, based in Saint-Nazaire, France...

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Ships

• Condorcet
  French battleship Condorcet (1909)
  Condorcet was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the French Navy; the nature of her armament, which included an intermediate calibre between the main and anti-torpedo armament, has usually meant that, in common with , and the Japanese ships of the Aki class, she is regarded as a semi-dreadnought...
  
  , a Danton class battleship built in 1909
• Diderot
  French battleship Diderot (1909)
  The Diderot was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the French Navy.-Service History:She participated in the Battle of Antivari in 1914 when a French squadron sortied into the Adriatic and attempted to draw the Austro-Hungarian Navy into a fleet action....
  
  , a Danton class battleship built in 1909
• France
  French battleship France
  France was the last ship of the s, the first dreadnoughts built for the French Navy. She was completed just before World War I as part of the 1911 naval building programme. She spent the war in the Mediterranean, covering the Otranto Barrage in the Adriatic...
  
  , a Courbet class battleship built in 1912
• Strasbourg
  French battleship Strasbourg
  The Strasbourg was a more heavily armoured Dunkerque-class battleship of the French Navy, labeled as a "fast battleship". Faster than full battleships, but not as heavily armed or armoured as them, they were designed to counter the threat of the German "pocket battleships" - the Deutschland-class...
  
  , a Dunkerque class battleship built in conjunction with C. Penhoët in 1936
• Jean Bart
  French battleship Jean Bart (1940)
  The Jean Bart was a French battleship of World War II named for the seventeenth-century seaman, privateer, and corsair Jean Bart.Derived from the Dunkerque class, Jean Bart were designed to counter the threat of the heavy ships of the Italian Navy...
  
  , a Richelieu class battleship built in conjunction with C. Penhoët in 1939