One of the Brazil’s fastest growing engineering and fabrication companies, Brastec Technologies, has announced a joint venture with a UK-based partner.
The deal with Express Engineering will allow both companies to take advantage of the huge business opportunities in one of the world’s most active oil and gas extraction markets.
With two of the three largest sub-sea reserves discovered in recent years off the Brazilian coast, around half of the global drilling and underwater equipment manufacturing capacity is expected to be focused on the region.
The 50:50 partnership, signed this week, creates Petrotec Components de Precisão Ltda, which will begin operations in the first quarter of 2010. The premises, a 1,000m² extension to Brastec’s existing Sao Paulo plant, is already in place and over £1m’s worth of machinery has been ordered.
The two companies have much in common. Both are recognised experts in different though complementary areas of engineering; each is privately owned with around 140 employees; have annual turnovers of approximately MR$80; and they even operate from similar-looking, modern, mirrored premises.
As one of the UK’s leading manufacturers of precision engineering components and assemblies, Express Engineering has just completed the first phase of a £3.2m expansion at its Tyneside headquarters. This investment was designed to increase capacity by up to 50% as it seeks to win new business in the aerospace, defence and oil and gas sectors.
Brastec specialises in offering engineering solutions, developing and manufacturing heavy equipment with high standard requirements for oil and gas, wire and cables and pipe industries, and has just finalised its expansion with an additional of 5,000m² available to grow the business within precision components in the O&G segment.
Fabio Romano, director of Brastec, is delighted to be able to participate side by side with a well-known and experienced partner such as Express Engineering and commented: “It is a great opportunity. Specialised jobs will be created and employment will be increased. The creation of joint venture is part of our strategy aimed at strengthening our position in the Brazilian oil and gas market.”
Express Engineering owner Chris Thompson and managing director Nigel Davison said:
“We have been looking to establish a specialist manufacturing capacity in Brazil for some time but the challenges posed by language, culture and distance are considerable. This arrangement with Brastec offers the perfect opportunity to overcome all these challenges.”
“The slightly different operational profiles of our companies mean we can both add to the others offering while the size and similarity of the way the companies work suggests they will fit well together.”
Over the coming months, staff from express engineering and Brastec will work in each other business to begin the knowledge transfer and training process ready for manufacture.