OREANDA-NEWS. The Jose Alencar product vessel set sail for its maiden voyage. During the ceremony marking the start of its operations, Transpetro CEO, Sergio Machado, gave the green light for construction to get underway for eight more product tankers at the Maua Shipyard (Niteroi/RJ). The new lot will require investments of BRL 1.4 billion within the BRL 11.2 billion earmarked for the construction of 49 ships and 20 waterway convoys under the Fleet Modernization and Expansion Program (Promef).

Jose Alencar is the sixth vessel of the program to go into operation in a period of two years and completes the first lot of orders placed by Transpetro to Brazilian shipyards within Promef. Seven vessels have already been delivered, and another 12 are under construction. In 2014, Promef is expected to set a new record: seven vessels will be put into operation.

Also this year, our subsidiary will receive the first three convoys. Promef also enabled the construction of three new shipyards: Atlantico Sul (EAS) and Vard Promar, in Pernambuco; and Rio Tiete (ERT), in Sao Paulo.

Besides Jose Alencar, the first Promef lot includes three other product vessels that are already in operation: Celso Furtado (November/2011), Sergio Buarque de Holanda (July/2012), and Romulo Almeida (January/2013). Besides these, EAS delivered to Transpetro the Joao Candido (May/2012) and Zumbi dos Palmares (May 2013) Suezmax ships, and the Dragao do Mar tanker (December/2013), the latter expected to set sail in the first quarter of this year.

Maiden voyage

On its maiden voyage, Jose Alencar left the Maua Shipyard, in Niteroi, where it was built, to be loaded with naphtha at the Ilha D'Agua Terminal (RJ). From there, it will sail to the Sao Sebastiao terminal, in Sao Paulo, where it will be unloaded.

"The Brazilian shipbuilding industry is experiencing a new moment. It is no longer a dream and today is consolidated. The delivery of the first batch of Promef orders is proof of that. The main focus now is management and quality, so there is more and better productivity in pursuit of international competitiveness. That is what we are working on," noted Sergio Machado.

Jose Alencar - which has 12 cargo tanks, sails at 14.6 knots, and has an autonomy of 12,000 nautical miles - will transport light oil products. Measuring 183 meters in length (the equivalent of nearly two official football fields), 32.2 meters in width, 43.8 meters in height (taller than the Christ the Redeemer statue), the ship can carry 56 million liters of fuel (enough to fill about 13 Olympic swimming pools).

In all, 9147 tonnes of structural steel; 250 tonnes of hull accessories; 25,000 liters of paints and solvents; 4,500 pieces of pipes weighing 380 tonnes; 95,000 meters of electrical cables, and 274 tonnes of electrodes and consumables were used to build it.

Promef

Promef drove the reconstruction of the Brazilian naval industry after a crisis lasting decades, with an investment of BRL 11.2 billion in the commissioning of 49 vessels and 20 waterway convoys. Brazil currently has the world's fourth largest backlog of vessels and the third for oil tankers. The naval industry, which at the turn of the century hired fewer than 2,000 workers, is now nearly 77,000 strong, according to Sinaval data.

With the seven ships delivered, the rate of domestic content will exceed 65%, the amount stipulated for the first phase of the program, ensuring employment and income generation in Brazil. At the Maua Shipyard alone, where Jose Alencar was built, 3400 jobs were created, of which 1200 directly in the construction of the vessel.

Promef has three pillars:

- build vessels in Brazil;

- achieve a minimum level of 65% local content in the first phase and 70% in the second;

- reach international competitiveness after the learning curve.

The first two pillars have already been achieved. And, with them, Promef has helped remove the Brazilian shipbuilding industry from the abandonment it had been in for decades.

The third pillar, the quest for international competitiveness, is the current focus. To achieve this goal, Transpetro created the Production Monitoring System (PMS), which was designed to evaluate the shipyards' productive processes and suggest alternatives for improving productivity.

The main international shipping industry players, such as Japan, South Korea, and China took, respectively, 63, 53 and 23 years to reach maturity in the industry. In but 13 years, Brazil has already achieved results comparable to those of the Chinese market.

Jose Alencar

The ship was named after the former vice president of Brazil, a public figure and businessman. From a humble clerk who, at 14 years of age, was already working at a haberdashery in Muriae (MG), to the commander of an industrial empire, Jose Alencar became a respected and admired business leader and politician who helped write important pages in the history of Brazil .