Estabelecimento de Fundição e Estaleiros Ponta da Areia (English: Foundry Establishment and Shipyards Ponta da Areia) was one of the first shipbuilding industries in Brazil, having been founded by Charles Colman in 1844 and acquired in 1846 by Irineu Evangelista de Sousa, future Baron and Viscount of Mauá.

[4] With the independence of Brazil, the naval sector gradually restructured itself to cope with the growing demand for means of locomotion of cargo and passengers by river and/or sea.

Until the mid-1840s, shipyards and small foundries dedicated to shipbuilding were concentrated around the Brazilian Navy arsenal and the Ponta da Areia, in Niterói.

In mid 1844, the British Charles Colmann opens a small foundry on the Ponta da Areia in Niterói.

[5] Its facilities were integrated to Companhia Comércio e Navegação (CCN) in 1905, the year this company was founded, specializing in ship construction and repair.