The Hindu Business Line : Joint venture concept mooted for shipbuilding

Kochi, Oct 12 Mr Ajoy Chatterjee, Chief Surveyor with the Union Government and Additional Director General of Shipping (Engineering), has mooted a joint venture concept for shipyards in the country with a consortium of smaller groups to increase the share of ship building in the country.

He pointed out that the joint venture concept would definitely increase production to meet the international competition as well as help keep up the delivery schedules of the yards on time. He also stressed the need for outsourcing the activities connected with the ship building to boost production.

Mr Chatterjee was here in for the launch of the 6th bulk carrier for Clipper Group and the 5th platform supply vessel for Deep Sea Supply, Norway constructed at Cochin Shipyard Ltd.

He said Cochin Shipyard has been in the limelight in ship repairs despite the lean period ship building is going through world over. It is not a bad record for the yard compared to the competition all over the world, he said adding, that there is still a big scope for CSL in construction of offshore vessels.

Growth

Given the growth in the ship repair sector, he said that CSL should consider providing in-depth training to develop human resources required for ship building activities as there could be a shortage of skilled manpower in the sector.

The 6th bulk carrier named Clipper Tenacious is the last in the series of six ships being built by CSL for the Clipper Group, Denmark. The first five ships were delivered on schedule. The order for these ships was signed in January 2004.

Large ships

Commodore M. Jitendran, Chairman and Managing Director, CSL, said that these ships hold a special importance for the yard, being the first series of orders for large ships signed by the company for export. It is also the largest merchant vessels exported so far from India. The ship is capable of carrying dry bulk, break bulk cargoes and can carry gross tonnage of about 19,918.

CSL has orders for 16 more platform supply ships for various foreign owners. The Air Defence Ship for the Indian Navy is also under construction, he added.