OSX Brasil’s subsidiary, OSX Construção Naval, has secured a $227.9m loan from the Brazilian Economic and Social Development Bank (BNDES) for the construction of a shipyard and industrial complex in Brazil.
The loan will finance the construction of the shipyard Açu Shipbuilding Unit, which started in July 2011 in the city of São João da Barra, located in the northern region of the state of Rio de Janeiro.
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The shipyard will be built in cooperation with South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) and is scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of 2013.
OSX CEO Luiz Eduardo Carneiro said the construction of the Açu Shipbuilding Unit is well underway and expects to begin steel cutting for the company’s fleet of oil and gas production platforms in the first quarter of 2013.
“This $227.9m disbursement advances part of the BRL2.7bn ($1.49bn) (FMM – Fundo da Marinha Mercante) long-term funding, dedicated to the implementation of the Açu Shipbuilding Unit, which we are developing in partnership with our fellow shareholder and technology partner HHI,” Carneiro said.
The BNDES loan will be extended for a period of 18 months at an approximate interest rate of 5.4%, while principal and interest to be paid at the end of the maturity period.
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By GlobalDataThe company said the new yard, which is the fifth generation shipyard, will have excellent logistics facilities and is strategically located approximately 150km from the Campos Basin, through which 85% of Brazil’s crude oil output is handled.
The shipyard’s proximity to steel plants will help it procure steel plates of 18m x 4m, which will result in 30% overall cost reduction including 56% cost reduction in welding as well as esnure supply guarantee.
Açu Shipbuilding Unit has a total area of 3.2 million m2 of which 2.55 million m2 will be used in the first phase of development and the first phase of development will allow the shipyard to build 6 FPSOs and build up to eight fixed platforms (WHPs) simultaneously.
The new yard will have dry dock of 480m long, 130m in width and 11m in depth and a quay length of 2,400m, expandable to 3,525m.
OSX is planning to increase its ship building capacity enabling the company to deliver up to ten FPSOs and 11 WHPs by 2015, out of which seven FPSOs and nine WHPs planned to be built at Açu shipyard.
