NEW BRAZILIAN SHIPPING FIRM AIMS TO BUILD SHIPS
Austral, a new Brazilian shipping company, hopes to receive so-called priority orders from the Brazilian government by the end of this month that would enable it to build six 4,600-TEU containerships.
Based in Rio de Janeiro, Austral is currently owned by Transtermar and by Elonda, a subsidiary of the ship management group VShips. A spokesman for Austral said that Transportes Fink will acquire 25 percent of the company’s shares very soon. Fink is a company affiliated to Transroll Navegacao, the Brazilian shipping group that withdrew from the East Coast of South America/northern Europe and the East Coast of South America/North America liner trades.
Austral said that it plans to charter ships and enter the East Coast of South America/northern Europe container trade and then the East Coast of South America/North America trade.
The Austral venture represents an attempt by Brazil to resurrect its container shipping industry. All the major Brazilian shipping companies — including Transroll, Libra and Alianca — were partly or wholly acquired by non-Brazilian companies over the past two years.