Brazil success for Humber firms

A TRADE mission to Brazil has brought success for Humber organisations.

Grimsby Institute has won a contract to design training courses for a shipyard in the city of Recife while Humber Electrical Engineering is hoping to win business from shipyards in Rio.

Andrew McKinnon, from Grimsby Institute, said: “The trip was a nailed-on success. We were able to offer solutions to the training gaps that a shipyard with 5,000 employees identified. They lack sufficient skilled labour and cannot build ships fast enough especially those for the oil industry, including tankers.

“Training will be face-to-face and online and will include training the trainers.”

The visit to the Brazilian north-east state of Pernambuco was organised by the World Trade Centre in Hull working with UK Trade & Investment and Team Humber Marine Alliance.

Paul Richardson, project manager at Humber Electrical Engineering, said: “It was our first time in South America and a fact-finding mission to look at new markets.

“Recife is up-and-coming, but from our point of view we thought there would be more to gain from visiting the established shipyards in the Rio area.

“We were well received everywhere and a lot of potential emerged from the last three meetings. As well as our electrical design facilities we were delighted that there was also interest in our manufactured systems.”