The first icebreaker built in Latin America, Almirante Oscar Viel, was launched last week from the state-run naval ASMAR shipyard in Talcahuano, Chile after five years of construction
At a total cost of around US$ 210 million, Chile's first home-built icebreaker is already 60% complete and plans to be seaworthy by the time of the XII International Naval Exhibition and Congress in Valparaíso in December, it was reported.
Chilean president Sebastián Piñera headed on Sunday the steel cutting ceremony for the building of the first, --out of four--, multipurpose vessel, to be incorporated to the country's navy. Also present at the ceremony were Defense minister Baldo Prokurica and the commander in chief of the navy, Admiral Juan Andrés de la Maza.