- Construction starts on first ship to be built at Brazilian shipyard supported by Samsung Heavy Industries
- Killing three birds with one stone! Royalty, dividends and offshore facilities thorough Atlantico!



On the 12th of this month in Brazil, Samsung Heavy Industries held a keel-laying ceremony for a 150,000 ton oil tanker to be built with Samsung's technology. The ceremony was attended by approximately one thousand guests, including Brazilian President Luiz In?cio da Silva, affectionately known to his people as "Lula," and the head of the shipyard, Bae Seok-Yong. 
 
Keel laying is the first process in ship construction, in which the main block of a ship is mounted in a dock. This keel-laying ceremony marked the beginning of operations at the Brazilian Atlantico shipyard.  
 
The ceremony at the Atlantico shipyard was highly significant, for several reasons. First, this ship is the very first ship built with technology exported from Samsung Heavy Industries to Brazil. It also will be the largest ship built in Brazil to date, and the shipyard is the largest shipyard in South America. As many believe that this will be a stepping-stone to a boom in Brazil's shipbuilding industry, and lead to many new job opportunities, the president of Brazil, Lula, visited the ceremony to provide his encouragement and support. 
 
In 2006, Samsung Heavy Industries learned that Brazil intends to block independent bids by foreign companies for shipbuilding or offshore plant building orders, in order to promote the growth of its domestic industry. Responding to this situation, SHI selected Atlantico as a strategic partner to conquer the Brazilian market, and began to provide them with technical support related to shipyards and shipbuilding.
 
The Atlantico shipyard being built in the industrial complex in Suape, which is famous for being the hometown of President Lula, has a large dock with a length of 400 meters and a width of 73 meters in a lot with an area of 1.6 million ㎡, and is expected to be completed at the end of this year. In addition, two sets of 1500 ton goliath cranes will be installed to build all types of structures, including ships and offshore plants.
 
With the technical support of global industry leader Samsung Heavy Industries, Atlantico has already won contracts for fifteen oil tankers and one oil-drilling facility with a total value of 1.9 billion dollars, and has established its position as the number one shipbuilder in Brazil.   
 
In return for the technical support it is providing to Atlantico, Samsung Heavy Industries has received royalties, which it invested in a 10% stake in Atlantico, worth 22 million dollars. With these shares, the company has fully met the requirements for the protection of domestic industry in terms of shipbuilding and offshore projects in Brazil, as well as dividends. This indicates that Samsung Heavy Industries has secured an early advantage over other competitors.    
 
Through this partnership, Samsung Heavy Industries and the Atlantico shipyard are expected to participate in a bid for drilling ships required by a Brazilian oil producer, Petrobras, which wants to build seven ships annually for the next three years, beginning at the end of this year. Through this mutual effort, they can speed up delivery and reduce the budget by conducting continuous shipbuilding, promote drill ship technology transfer, and maximize job opportunities in Brazil by sharing the duties on a 50-50 basis.
 
Since 2000, Samsung Heavy Industries has built 29 (66%) of the total of 44 drill ships built in the world, and its technological power is well recognized worldwide. Employing approximately seven thousand professionals in the fields of R&D and construction of offshore facilities, SHI is the only shipyard in the world that can build twelve drilling ships each year. 
 
As it is estimated that Brazil has 50 billion barrels of oil in the deep-sea petroleum lots with a length of 800 km and a width of 200 km, the country plans to increase the daily oil production amount from 2.75 million barrels to 5.7 million barrels by 2020. Accordingly, it has announced that it will invest 104.6 billion dollars in energy development over the next five years.   
 
Vice Chairman of Samsung Heavy Industries Kim Jing-wan said, "We will join forces with Atlantico to focus on bidding for the drill ships required by Petrobras, rather than the approximately 100 work ships and FPSO ships."
 
Speaking to concerns over the security of SHI's proprietary technologies, he added, "If Korea does not transfer its technology, we will end up giving advantages to Singapore or European shipbuilders with drill ship technologies. With the exception of our most sensitive technologies, all general technologies should be provided to Brazil, in order to maximize profits for Korean shipbuilders. This is the best way forward for the Korean shipbuilding industry."