The EDPI Ship Repair Yard Project Achieves Another Milestone

On Monday of this week, the completed environmental impact assessment for the Empresa de Docagens Pedra do Ingá (EDPI) ship repair yard project was submitted to the Paraíba state environmental agency, SUDEMA.  This report, the “Estudo de Impacto Ambiental/Relatório de Impacto Ambiental” (Study of Environmental Impacts/Report of Environmental Impacts, called the EIA/RIMA) was produced in accordance with the requirements to receive environmental licenses for the construction of the new ship repair yard.

The Commercial Director of McQuilling Services, LLC, New York and the Project Director of the Brasil Basin Drydock Company (BBDC) project, Dave Saginaw, said that this filing was the culmination of considerable effort begun in October of 2015 when the project applied for the environmental licenses.  “We are elated to have arrived at this stage of the project, on schedule and on budget.  The heavy-lifting is completed with regard to the process, and now we will work to provide any additional information or material required by SUDEMA to support their internal review procedure,” he said.

“We are grateful for the attention and enthusiasm we are receiving from state and local authorities in Paraíba and the municipality of Lucena, as well as the positive community interest in the new facility,” stated Mr. Saginaw, “We believe this project is maturing at a critical time in Brazil, with positive result.  We are fortunate to be in the position we are in at the moment.”

BBDC Project Manager for the EDPI facility development, Celso P. Souza said from Rio de Janeiro, “This is an important milestone for the project.  After the SUDEMA review and period for public comment, we believe that we will have the preliminary license in hand in within several weeks.  This coincides with our project schedule that envisions a start of construction in early 2017 with first repair operations commencing early in 2019.”

The Empresa de Docagens Pedra do Ingá (EDPI) facility will be located inside the harbor near the Port of Cabedelo in the municipality of Lucena in the state of Paraíba, and is ideally positioned near to major shipping lanes in the Atlantic basin.  The 660,000 square meter facility will be purpose-built for ship repairs, and its two graving docks and hydrolift facilities will be capable of drydocking any ship in the world merchant fleet.