In Lula’s Shadow, Brazil’s Shipbuilders Struggle to Right Themselves<br />Mr. Vanderlei described the pair that sit unfinished in Niterói waters as "an embarrassment"<br />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.<br />In June 2011, Mr. da Silva’s handpicked successor, President Dilma Rousseff, told thousands of cheering workers at the BrasFELS shipyard near Rio<br />that Brazil had silenced the doubters, leaving no question that she would continue the industry efforts.<br />NITERÓI, Brazil — The city of Niterói, near Rio de Janeiro, features an unusual landmark: two unfinished oil tankers emblazoned with the green<br />and yellow of Brazil’s state-run oil company, Petrobras.<br />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.<br />"They overheated the market, basically, and they promised things<br />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.<br />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<br />that Petrobras needed, creating tens of thousands of jobs in the process.
