Brazil’s President, Luiz Inàcio Lula da Silva, steps down from a Manitowoc 18000 at the Atlântico Sul shipyard after taking the controls for a keel-laying ceremony.

Pictured is the Atlantico Sul Shipyard in Ipojuca, in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil, where a Manitowoc Model 18000 crawler crane was on hand for a keel-laying ceremony.

The president of Brazil, Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva, popularly known as Lula, took the controls of a Manitowoc Model 18000 crawler crane for a keel-laying ceremony at the Atlantico Sul Shipyard in Ipojuca, in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil. At the event, which took place mid-September, the crane positioned the central section of the Suezmax 1 oil tanker. The tanker is the first of 10 vessels ordered by Transpetro, the tanker-owning part of the state-run oil company Petrobras.

“It was great to see Lula take the controls of the 18000 at one of the most important new industrial facilities for Brazil,” said Kyle Nape, vice president and general manager of Manitowoc’s Latin America operations. “This is a huge project for us with 29 Manitowoc cranes, including several large-capacity crawler cranes. There were an estimated 9,000 workers at the keel-laying event, together with local government officials and some of Brazil’s most senior business leaders.”

One of the most recent projects at the shipyard, still in the final stages of completion, was the erection of two 1,500-ton-capacity gantry cranes. The shipyard used two Manitowoc Model 18000 crawler cranes, including one newly arrived at the job.