In Lula’s Shadow, Brazil’s Shipbuilders Struggle to Right Themselves
Mr. Vanderlei described the pair that sit unfinished in Niterói waters as "an embarrassment"
that between them cost nearly $200 million and are "stuck in the Guanabara Bay, rotting." Petrobras’s distribution arm said in an email that it had canceled 20 contracts, including the unfinished ships at Mauá "as a result of noncompliance with contract obligations." It did not comment further.
In June 2011, Mr. da Silva’s handpicked successor, President Dilma Rousseff, told thousands of cheering workers at the BrasFELS shipyard near Rio
that Brazil had silenced the doubters, leaving no question that she would continue the industry efforts.
NITERÓI, Brazil — The city of Niterói, near Rio de Janeiro, features an unusual landmark: two unfinished oil tankers emblazoned with the green
and yellow of Brazil’s state-run oil company, Petrobras.
None of the 28 rigs it ordered from Brazilian yards were ever delivered — three lie unfinished at the shipyard where Ms. Rousseff spoke in 2011.
"They overheated the market, basically, and they promised things
that were unrealistic." In Niterói, a city of half a million people just a half-hour drive from Rio, the Mauá shipyard struggled with an order to build four ships for Petrobras.
Buoyed by rising energy prices, Brazil in 2003 set out to bolster its domestic shipbuilding sector by constructing all of the tankers, rigs and production platforms
that Petrobras needed, creating tens of thousands of jobs in the process.
