L&T plans Rs 10 bn Indias mega shipyard
With demand soaring and the waiting period for ships extending beyond three years anywhere in the world, engineering major Larsen & Toubro (L&T) plans to make an initial investment of Rs 10 billion to build Indias largest shipyard, reports Hindustan Times.
The new shipyard is likely to come up in the southern port city of Chennai by the end of 2008 or in early 2009, and will be the countrys first shipyard equipped to build very large crude carriers (VLCCs) with a capacity of 300,000-350,000 dwt (dead weight tonnage or tons, a measure of the cargo-carrying capacity of a ship).
A team led by S. Sreekumar, former director of operations at Cochin Shipyard, has already begun work on the yard. The greenfield yard, spread across 1,500 acre, will have the capacity to build five very large crude carriers, 20 Suezmax carriers and repair 50-60 ships a year. A Suezmax carrier is a tanker that can pass through the Suez Canal when fully loaded and usually has a capacity between 120,000 dwt and 200,000 dwt.
L&Ts decision to build a shipyard comes at a time when global shipyards are booked until 2009-2010.
With capacity in traditional ship-building countries such as Japan, Korea and Norway booked for the next few years, fleet owners have started looking at new destinations such as China and India.
Last year, the government announced it would invest Rs 100 billion in building two shipyards. The country has around 20 shipyards, the majority state-owned, but none has the kind of capacity L&T is talking about. Indian ship builders, including private sector ones such as Bharti Shipyard and ABG Shipyard, have been expanding their capacities to take advantage of the global boom in ship-building.
Shares of L&T closed at Rs 1,667.80, down by Rs 25.40, or 1.50% at the BSE. Total volume of shares traded was 98,186 (Tuesday 3:58 p.m).
The new shipyard is likely to come up in the southern port city of Chennai by the end of 2008 or in early 2009, and will be the countrys first shipyard equipped to build very large crude carriers (VLCCs) with a capacity of 300,000-350,000 dwt (dead weight tonnage or tons, a measure of the cargo-carrying capacity of a ship).
A team led by S. Sreekumar, former director of operations at Cochin Shipyard, has already begun work on the yard. The greenfield yard, spread across 1,500 acre, will have the capacity to build five very large crude carriers, 20 Suezmax carriers and repair 50-60 ships a year. A Suezmax carrier is a tanker that can pass through the Suez Canal when fully loaded and usually has a capacity between 120,000 dwt and 200,000 dwt.
L&Ts decision to build a shipyard comes at a time when global shipyards are booked until 2009-2010.
With capacity in traditional ship-building countries such as Japan, Korea and Norway booked for the next few years, fleet owners have started looking at new destinations such as China and India.
Last year, the government announced it would invest Rs 100 billion in building two shipyards. The country has around 20 shipyards, the majority state-owned, but none has the kind of capacity L&T is talking about. Indian ship builders, including private sector ones such as Bharti Shipyard and ABG Shipyard, have been expanding their capacities to take advantage of the global boom in ship-building.
Shares of L&T closed at Rs 1,667.80, down by Rs 25.40, or 1.50% at the BSE. Total volume of shares traded was 98,186 (Tuesday 3:58 p.m).
