ENGINEERS in the region are dancing to a Brazilian beat after winning a new contract that has put the spring back in the step of a company that was in the doldrums.

Precision engineering specialist Express Engineering has netted a deal to supply components for a sub sea oil and gas project off the coast of Brazil. To manage the contract, the North-East firm has brought in weekend work patterns that staff have dubbed "the Samba shift".

The firm is the latest in the region to adapt itself to the demands of overseas clients. Last month, Pearson-Harper, based in Billingham, near Stockton announced that some of its workers had started working on Australian time to manage its major gas and oil field contracts Down Under.

Express Engineering has started to offer staff more overtime at the plant on Team Valley, Gateshead which, over the past couple of years, has experienced the toughest trading conditions in its 36 year history.

However, the establishment of a joint venture operation in South America in 2009 Petrotec Components Ltd is beginning to bear fruit, just as confidence returns to other markets around the world.

Express Engineerings Managing Director, Nigel Davison, said: "After a very challenging year or so we have seen a marked improvement in business in recent months and this has allowed us to re-introduce a Friday to Sunday shift which was withdrawn towards the end of 2009.

We are also working a lot of overtime again and we are recruiting too as the order book fills up. We now have over 9m worth of work a similar position to where we were three years ago. Although it has been tough, our decision to invest in a factory expansion and to hold on to our people during the lean times has put us in an extremely good position to take advantage of the economic upturn."

The components for the Brazilian work will be manufactured on new machinery now installed in the recently completed £4.5m extension to the site. This machinery includes a £350,000 long bed turning machine, the first of its kind to be operating in the UK.