Virtual Shipyards in Brazil – Still a long way to go to supply the demand for ships from the O&G Industry

Most of the new shipyards to be built in Brazil are still on the drawing board. The exceptions are the Inhaúma yard, which was taken over by Petrobras and is being renovated as a ship repair yard, and the OSX shipyard which will be located within the Açu port complex in the northern part of the state of Rio de Janeiro. As both the port and the shipyard are owned by the EBX group, which also owns OGX OIL & GAS, they have guaranteed orders and have already received a partial environmental license and construction has already begun. The orders are guaranteed by the demand for ships from OGX, so they do not depend directly on orders from Petrobras. The Jurong Aracruz yard already has its environmental license but is still clearing its industrial are of unwanted vegetation and has not officially begun to build its infrastructure. The EISA Alagoas yard, belonging to the Synergy Group, will be built in Coruripe in the state of Alagoas and will require and investment of around $850 million. They are still awaiting their environmental license in order to begin infrastructure construction, although they believe they will have the license by the end of the year. They definitely depend on Petrobras orders to grow, but according to the Group, the shipyard will be built even if they do not have guaranteed orders from the national operator. In south Brasil the Brasil Shipyard (EBR) will be built in São João do Norte in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, although the construction has not begun yet, the owners plan for the yard to be operational by 2014. EBR´s construction will demand an investment of around $200 million. Another shipyard construction which is beginning is the Paraguaçu Shipyard to be built in the northeast state of Bahia, by a consortium made up of Odebrecht, OAS and UTC Engineering. The basic infrastructure construction has begun and the schedule is for the yard ready by 2013 following an investment of around $700 million, and an expectation of hiring 3 thousand workers during construction. As we can see there is still a long way to go for these new yards to become operational and help increase the output of ships built in Brazil. As we´ve seen before, most if not all the existing shipyards in Brazil are packed with orders and some may even be overbooked, these new yards and other now in the planning stage will be vital to release the bottleneck created by the massive demand in ships and rigs by Petrobras and other major operators. Claudio Paschoa