Rio Grande Shipyard receives 11,000 tonnes of steel for Handymax vessel construction

Steel processing for the hulls of Handymax vessels at the Rio Grande Shipyard, which began in April, received an important boost on Thursday (9) with the arrival of a vessel from Indonesia carrying 11,000 tonnes of steel.

Unloading began in the afternoon. The material will be used to build four ships contracted by Transpetro under the Mar Aberto Program, an initiative designed to renew and expand Petrobras’ own fleet. The vessels will be used to transport oil products along the Brazilian coast.

All the steel will be used in the construction of the four ships, a project that is already increasing activity at the shipyard and generating jobs locally. Around 500 workers are currently involved in the operations, and that number is expected to rise gradually.

More than 50% of the equipment needed for the Handymax vessels has already been purchased and will arrive in Rio Grande according to the work schedule agreed with Transpetro.

“This is an important milestone for the construction work, which continues to move forward consistently on these first four ships. Together with the other contracts signed with Transpetro, Ecovix’s shipyard will see increasing activity and a higher volume of hiring,” said Robson Passos, CEO of Ecovix.

The unloading of the steel was followed by Transpetro representatives who were in Rio Grande for a technical visit to the shipyard. Jones Soares, maritime transport director, and Flávio Gabina, executive manager for ship engineering and maintenance, inspected Ecovix’s industrial site and discussed the next stages of the project with the company.

The Handy vessels, which will expand Transpetro’s logistics capacity, will have deadweight tonnage of between 15,000 and 18,000 tonnes. They will be able to transport light petroleum products such as marine diesel, S10 diesel, S500 diesel and aviation gasoline.

In total, Ecovix will build 13 ships for Transpetro over the coming years: four Handymax vessels through the Marenova consortium; five pressurized tankers for LPG and oil products; and four medium-range MR1-class vessels.

The projects are expected to generate 5,000 direct and indirect jobs across the different vessel programs.

Source: Ecovix

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