Close on the heels of designing a maritime cluster in Kochi, Cochin Shipyard is looking at developing other facilities on the western coast of the country to carry out repairs of passing vessels.
Madhu S Nair, Chairman and Managing Director, CSL, said that discussions and feasibility studies are on for the project.
India’s share in the $25-30 billion global ship repair market is currently about one per cent. Setting up of ship repair clusters is in line with the Centre’s initiatives under Maritime Indi Vision 2030.
CSL, according to Nair, holds about 50 per cent market share in the Indian repair industry.
He said that by May, CSL will commence operations at the new dry dock inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Kochi recently. “We intend to commence the assembly phase of the construction of a new dredger contracted for the Dredging Corporation of India at a cost of ₹920 crore in the dry dock,” he added.
On the financial front, he said the yard achieved 62 per cent growth in turnover in Q3 at ₹1,021 crore vis-à-vis the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal. The PAT registered 110 per cent rise at ₹248 crore. He attributed the achievement to the completion of naval and other ship building projects. “If everything goes well, we expect to have the highest turnover the yard has ever achieved both from shipbuilding and ship repairs,” he said.
Among the subsidiaries, Udupi CSL secured contracts for tugs and European short sea vessels; and Hoogly CSL for electric inland vessels. The three ship repair units at Mumbai, Kolkata and Port Blair have contributed ₹200 crore to the turnover, he added.