The present dissertation is a study of the demand for specialized technical services in the brazilian naval industry. The demand was approached under two different perspectives. First, from that observed through orders placed by this industry at three important technical institutes located in the state of Rio de Janeiro (Instituto Nacional de Tecnologia – INT, Instituto Tecnológico da Pontifícia Universidade Católica do rio de Janeiro – ITUC/PUC-Rio e Fundação Coordenação de Pesquisas, Projetos e Estudos Tecnológicos da Universidade do Rio de Janeiro – COPPETEC/UFRJ), in the period from 1986 to 1991. The second approach surveyed the demand from the industry. The data for Part 1 of the research came from a data bank developed in a brader study (decribed in reference [24]) which analysed the demand (consumption) for specialized technical services of the 1347 public and private firms pertaining to different economic sectors of the state of the Rio de Janeiro. In this respect, this part of the research was limited to the consideration of the real demand met by the three institutes investigated. The second approach developed in part 2 of the study involved field research covering 12 of the 21 firms active in the market of ship repairs and shipbuilding in the state of Rio de Janeiro. According to data from Sinaval (national Shipbuilding Union) and other sources of the whole naval industry. This sample is significant given the fact that 92 per cent of the national insdustry is concentrated in the state of Rio de Janeiro, characteristic which strongly simplified the field research. This part of the reserarch focus on both effective and potential demand for especialized technical services. The results of the present work provide a detailed characterization of the demand profile and the identification of the determining factors that affect this demand for technical services. They also alow to estimate the size of the market as well as its needs and potential growth on the basis of demands currently not met by the technical institutes. Furthermore, the study also stimated the potential for growth based on the willingness of such firms to increase its outsourcing of internally supplied services. These results should be useful in guiding the bussiness and technical development efforts of the institutes as well as to subsidize the formulation of public policies aiming at increasing the technical capabilities of the naval sector.