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

In the eighteenth century Nantes had been the biggest French port, and the Loire had a major shipbuilding industry.

In the first half of the nineteenth century a port was developed at Saint-Nazaire for ships that could no longer reach Nantes.

Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire (ACL) was formed in 1881 in Nantes by Jollet Babin to take advantage of the expansion of the French Navy.

It seemed that the plan to get involved in construction for the French navy had succeeded, but ACL would not lay down another battleship for ten years.

The logical alternative use of the slipways at Saint Nazaire would be to continue and expand the construction ocean liners.

With the construction of these medium-sized ocean liners the shipyard had successfully diversified into the market for civilian ships.

This was all the more important because the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 made it clear that no more battleships would be built in the near future.

The offer was made possible by an extremely low exchange rate of the French Franc, which had not yet been translated in increased cost.

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