Full Shipyards in Brazil

Brazilian shipyards are trying to become internationally competitive in terms of product quality, pricing and keeping to deadlines. There are presently around 280 units in construction in Brazil, including PSVs, tankers and rigs, with a workforce of around 56 thousand and growing. The shipyards are full to capacity and even though there are over twenty new yards being built, there is still a demand for more.

One of the main problems faced by these new yards is to maintain a high quality standard in order to compete with experienced foreign yards. This is no easy feat. However many of these new yards being built have some form of partnership with international shipyards, looking to enter the Brazilian market. This fact may be helpful in reaching the quality standards required to be internationally competitive.

There is also a need for even more shipyards to be built in Brazil, as according to Petrobras, the existing yards still cannot keep up with the demands coming from the national operator. According to a recent market research, there is need for three more shipyards to build hulls for platforms and another seven to build rig modules. There is also need for three more yards to build medium sized ships and two more to build PSVs.

The local shipyard industry is truly packed full and is expected to continue this way at least until 2015. However there are still more orders coming mainly from Petrobras, which is expected to order 14 new ships still pending from its EBN (Empresa Brasileira de Navegação) program. 30 PSVs and the larger multipurpose vessels are also expected to be ordered. All of these orders are expected to be placed by the end of this year.

These facts show how incredible the Brazilian shipbuilding industry´s growth has been and also how this growth is directly related to the growth of the Brazilian O&G industry. It is important to note that only a couple of years ago the Brazilian shipbuilding industry was at an all-time low, with less than 2,000 workers and no large ships being built. There is no stopping this growth but the fact remains that the industry still needs to mature in order to attract foreign orders and not depend solely on Petrobras` orders.

Claudio Paschoa