Cristina Índio do Brasil
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Rio - President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva affirmed today (10) that possessing a strong merchant marine is a gesture and an act of national sovereignty. This declaration was made in Niterói, in the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area, during the launching of the first phase of the Modernization and Expansion Program of the Transpetro Fleet. Transpetro is the subsidiary of Petrobras (Brazilian Petroleum S.A.) in the ocean shipping sector, and the program contemplates the purchase of 26 ships for a total of US$ 1.1 billion. According to the president, his government has already made over US$ 440 million available in credit from the Merchant Marine Fund for the renovation and expansion of the national shipping fleet, including loans for fishing vessels.

Lula thanked the engineers from Petrobras and the Supervisory Board of Postgraduate Engineering Programs at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Coppe/UFRJ), as well as workers and entrepreneurs, for helping him uphold the stand he took during the election campaign, namely that it was possible to resume ship construction in Brazil and strengthen the maritime industry.

The National Economic and Social Development Bank (BNDES) will finance up to 90% of the expenses to build the first ships. The resources will come from the Ministry of Transportation's Merchant Marine Fund. The repayment period is 20 years, at an annual interest rate of 4%. According to information from Transpetro, the shipyards that win the bids will receive 15-20% of the cost of each tanker ship in advance. It is expected that around 20 thousand direct jobs will be created.

The president recalled that, in his 33 months in office, 105 thousand formal jobs have been created, on average, each month, compared with the monthly average of eight thousand jobs under his predecessor.

Translation: David Silberstein