Mumbai: India's largest private sector shipbuilder ABG Shipyard has bagged a Rs20bn ($450m) order from Drilling & Offshore Pte Ltd for building two jack-up rigs capable of operating in water depths of 30,000ft. ABG's combined offshore and shipping orderbook now stands at over $3.25bn, with deliveries running through end-2014.
ABG builds a variety of ships including bulk carriers, diving support vessels, anchor handling and supply tugs, dynamic positioning vessels, cement carriers and military vessels. Since launched its first facility at Surat in 1991, the ISO 9001-2000 certified shipyard has built and delivered well over 100 vessels, exporting 90% of them in the past two years.
The rigs will be built at ABG's newer and larger yard in Dahej, opened in 2008, which covers 165 acres with 1km of waterline. Here ABG is building larger vessels than before, including bulk carriers of supramax (50,000-60,000dwt) size. A sophisticated shiplift from Norway's TTS, costing Rs2.5bn is being used to launch the newbuilds.
ABG also recently managed to acquire a majority equity stake in the Vasco (Goa) based ship and rig repairer Western India Shipyard, which had been in limbo since 2007 after its original promoters failed to repay bank loans. This facility will be used exclusively for shiprepair. [08/11/10]
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