Chennai: India's shipbuilding industry is on a roll and 'poised for a big leap (forward) in the next 5-6 years,' according to a report by the Confederation of Indian Industry Institute of Logistics (CIIIL) in its latest journal.
National yards already enjoy a 'robust' orderbook, says the CIIIL, thanks to growing worldwide demand for new ships, the pending phase-out of single hull tankers, and fully booked yards in Korea, Japan and China. It quotes figures compiled by private consultancy I-Maritime Research (last November) that show India's shipbuilding orderbook had at that time reached $1.07bn in value and ranked eighth in the world at 977,400dwt.
Since then ABG Shipyard, the country's largest private shipbuilder, has received orders worth Rs10.1bn ($219m); state-owned Cochin Shipyard's orderbook has grown to Rs9.6bn; and the sector has attracted new entrant Larsen & Toubro Limited (L&T), one of India's largest engineering and construction groups, says the CIIIL.
Booming Indian shipbuilding has also accelerated the import of marine equipment and components, points out the report. In 2005-6 these totalled an estimated EUR51m, which is expected to rise to EUR57m next year. After that faster growth of nearly 15% pa is predicted with the total reaching EUR97m in 2009-10.
The CIIIl concludes by saying that the Indian shipbuilding industry is 'poised for a big leap in the next 5-6 years' since the Government of India proposes to invest Rs71.95bn in the shipbuilding sector in the next five years. I-Maritime predicts the orderbook total could reach between $3bn and $5bn by 2009-10.
Since the CIIIL report was published its central thesis would seem to have been confirmed by healthy second quarter net profits reported this week for private shipbuilders ABG Shipyard and Bharati Shipyard, of Rs 269.3m ($5.7m) and Rs121.2m respectively. [02/08/06]
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