THE BEGINNING
MEC, under the name Marine Pollution Prevention & Consulting Services (MARPOL)
started operations in 1999, with the aim of providing pollution control services in Panama.
However, the company very soon became aware of the lack of cost effective and high quality
ship repair services in Panama and the urgent need to provide ship repair solutions to vessels
transiting the Panama Canal.
In 2002, the company was thrilled with the name of the company, associated with the MARPOL convention,
a real distraction to customers of our ship repair services. Therefore the company decided to change the name to
MARINE ENGINEERS CORPORATION (PANAMA) INC, or MEC, as we are known by our returning customers.
2002-2005
During these years, MEC started to promote its services around the world, offering ship repair services to the
ship owners calling at the ports of Panama and of the Region. By the year 2005, the company was solidly established
as one of the main ship repair companies in the Central American region. Also by the end of the year 2005, the company
started to work with the Panamax Dry Dock Facility and Braswell Shipyard both owned by the Panamanian Government and
managed by the Braswell family.
2005-2007
The company very quickly became the main contractor of the shipyard, servicing the three dry docks of the facility
and gaining valuable experience as a shipyard repair service company. By the end of 2007, the company had decided to
become a shipyard on its own and started on the path to achieving this goal.
2007-2009
The company continued to work as a sub-contractor at the shipyard facility, but began operating several small shipyard
facilities on a lease basis. The main ones were the Canal’s facility in Mount Hope, which had a capacity for vessels 120
meters in length and 20 meters in breadth, and the former Astilleros Veracruz International, a slip way shipyard facility
located on the Pacific Side of the Panama Canal, with a similar capacity to the the Panama Canal facility on the Atlantic.
2010
Almost 11 years after founding of the company and the first repair services, MEC was able to buy the Veracruz facility and,
on March 15, 2010, started operations in the new shipyard, with the entrance of a 700 ton small supply tanker vessel. Today, the
company still carries out the afloat repairs that continue to be our customer’s main requirement, but is in the process of upgrading
the Veracruz shipyard to service vessels 150 meters in length and to have, in the next 3 years, a Panamax pier facility.
