South Korea's state-run trade promotion agency and a Brazilian transport company agreed Monday to boost cooperation in the shipbuilding sector and seek to find joint investment projects.
The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) said that to that end, it signed a memorandum of understanding with Brazil's Transpetro S.A., the transport arm of the world's fourth largest energy company Petrobras S.A., in Seoul.
Transpetro is currently building 23 tankers and other transport ships under a program called PROMEF, which is designed to expand and modernize its fleet. The company is expected to build an additional 23 ships under a second stage of the program, according to KOTRA.
"The MOU is significant for us in that it helped open up Brazil's market for equipment and parts for ships to our companies," said Cho Hwan-eik, head of KOTRA.