Page 62: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (November 2011)

FEATURE WORKBOAT ANNUAL Brazil Workboat Market While much of the focus in and around Brazil is rightfully centered on the burgeoning offshore oil and gas market and, in step, the resurgence of the big oceangoing ship market, the boom in business south of the equator ishaving a big impact on the business of building smaller coastal, offshore and inland vessels ? the Workboat market. Fresh from a tour of Brazil, Alan Haig-Brown reports. BRAZILIAN YARD WITH AMBITIONS Fernando Santos Mata Virgen carries two business cards. Both cards show him as Director, in one case of the Corema Shipyard in Salvador Brazil, the other for Navemar Towing. Explaining that he has recently sold his fleet of tugs, the 70-year old di-rector is conferring with naval architect Marcos de Parahyba Campos on the building, at Corema, and operating, by Navemar, of a fleet of six 32m line handling tugs for offshore support. Also on the table were the plans for a new shipyard that would move his build potential from 75 to 200 m. The ship dock- ing tug Navemar XIV was one of the tugs that went with the Navemar fleet sale to Wilson Sons (www.wilsonsons.com.br/ingles ). At the time of the sale she was nearing completion. By late August crews from Corema, Navemar and Wilson, Sons were on board working with suppliers to do the final adjustment of the tug. In the engine room, CumminsApplication Engineer Aline F. Barros was working with Z-drive people to finalize the articulation of the 2200 HP at 1800 RPM Cummins QSK60-M mainengines and the Z-drives. Based in Rio de Janeiro Barros is coordinating and tracking a number of ma-rine projects for Cummins Vendas e Serviços de Motores e Geradores. She covers the states of São Paulo, Rid de Janeiro, Expirito Santo, Bahia and Sergipe. The 30.1 x 9.8-m tug has a 4.65-m molded depth. With a combined power of 4400 HP at 1800 RPM the tug has a 55-ton bollard pull. In additionto a bow mounted hawser winch, the versatile ship- docking tug is also fitted with a towing winch and a quick-release towing hook on the aft deck. Tankage includes 172 cu. m. of fuel and 28 cu. mt. of potablewater. With all systems checking out the tug will be delivered to the ever growing Wilson, Sons fleet while Fernando Santos looks for partners for hisnew shipyard and continues with his other build projects.MANAUS: DEEPSEA INLAND PORT Arguably the world?s greatest river system, the Amazon is navigable to large ships from the sea to Manaus. This is a distance of nearly 1000 miles, a similar distance to that from the Gulf of Mexico to Saint Louis on the Mississippi, but on that great American River deep-sea navigation ends at Baton Rouge, only about 250 miles up river. Due to ocean currents, the Amazon does not form a delta as do rivers like the Nile and Mississippi. As a result, silt- ing in the main river channel is minimal and dredg- ing is not required.At Manaus the Rio Negro river joins the Rio Solimões to form the Amazon. Above Manaus the Solimões, which is also known as the main stem of the Amazon, the river continues navigable for an- other 1200 miles. Ships with drafts of about 18 ft.can use this upper section as far as Iquitos Peru for most of the year. The two existing container terminals, Chibatão and Super Terminals, located next to each other on the Rio Negro, currently handle about 350,000 TEU per year. Plans are in the offing for dramatic in- creases in the Port?s capacity. With river heights Fernando Santos Mata Virgem (right) ? Director of the Corema Shipyard in Salvador, Brazil, and Director for Navemar Towing ? has plans for growth of both operations. Left: The operator's view over the bow of Navemar XIV. (Haig-Brown photos courtesy of Cummins Marine) 62Maritime Reporter & Engineering News MR Nov.11 # 8 (57-64):MR Template 11/2/2011 1:47 PM Page 62