Industrial Operations

The project was divided up into 17 packages, contracted through the EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) mode. The supplier of each package was responsible for total delivery: conceptual engineering, basic engineering, construction, electrical and mechanical assembly, tests and pre-operating commissioning, training of operators and the start up of operations, maintaining assistance until reaching the levels of production and quality levels that were stipulated in the contracts.

Each supplier signed alliances or sub-contracted other specialized companies, which raised the number of companies involved in the project to 165. At the peak of the construction project, there were 9,319 persons working directly at the site (in October 2004).

Our contracts demanded compliance with labor legislation and the awarding of fringe benefits, and recommended that whenever possible regional manpower was to be hired as a means of increasing the generation of income in the neighboring communities. The result was that 50.14% of the workers involved in the construction of the mill were natives of the state of Bahia.