The Hindu Business Line : Tebma plans to build two shipyards

Core strength
Tebma designs and builds dredgers, tugs, floating cranes, off-shore vessels, multi- purpose vessels, and anchor-handling vessels.
Moving up in the value chain it plans to make combo vessels.

T. Murrali

Chennai, June 25

The Chennai-headquartered Tebma Shipyards Ltd (TSL) is planning to set up two shipyards — one on the Eastern coast and the other on the Western. It is now in the process of acquiring lands, up to 500 acres in each location.

TSL, a company in which ICICI Bank holds 53 per cent, is also looking at acquiring shipyards in Asian countries since it is not able to meet the demand, especially from European countries. It is in talks with couple of companies in the Asean region.

Tebma designs and builds dredgers, tugs, floating cranes, off-shore vessels, multi- purpose vessels, and anchor-handling vessels. Moving up in the value chain it plans to make combo vessels, which will have several functions integrated into one, enabling customers to optimise cost.

The Chairman of TSL, Mr P.K. Balan, told Business Line that the total outlay for the two projects is estimated at about Rs 1,000 crore, and the funds would be managed through a combination of internal accruals, equity and debt. These new shipyards will make the turnover grow by 12 folds to about Rs 5,000 crore by 2015, he said.

In 2008, the company achieved a turnover of Rs 400 crore. “Tebma has been growing at almost 100 per cent CAGR for the last five years,” he said. The company’s current order book stood at Rs 1,500 crore, which would be executed before 2010, he added.

Construction of two projects will commence early 2009 and will be operational in 30 months. However, shipbuilding activity would commence within a year, to help the company meet the demand from overseas customers, he said. Each shipyard will have up to 30 bays, which will transform into manufacturing about 60 more vessels a year.

Currently, the company has manufacturing operations in Chengelpet to make dredgers and other crafts up to 22 metres in length. Its shipyard in Malpe near Udupi in Karnataka makes tugs and offshore vessels of about 10 units a year. Besides, TSL has an MoU with Cochin Shipyard to build offshore vessels meant for exports.