In this article we will discuss in details about the shipbuilding industry in India. Indian ship building industry is an old and matured one. There are twenty eight ship yards in the country. Of these eight are in the public sector. The rest are private owned.

How Big is Indian Shipbuilding Industry?

The turnover of the shipbuilding business in India was around 1.6 billion in the year 2010. The figure has increased to almost double as per the figures today. The largest shipyards in the country are the Cochin shipyard and the Hindustan shipyard. Although the private shipyards are more in number they don’t have the capacity to build huge ships. The shipbuilding industry in India also provides ship repairing services.

Segment wise Division

The shipbuilding in India is divided into two segments and they are:

1. New ship building yards – these ships yards make new ships. They make both commercial and defense ships. The commercial ships are for the European markets. The defense ships are exclusively for the Indian navy. ABG Shipyard, Bharti Shipyard, Modest, Pipavav Shipyard, L&T Shipyard, Cochin Shipyard, etc are some of these yards.

2. Ship repairing yards- the Indian ship repairing industry consists of seven ship repair units. They basically do repairing of the ships. Alcock Ashdown & Co. Limited, Chennai Port Trust, Hindustan Shipyard Limited, Mumbai port Trust, Cochin Shipyards, Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Mazgaon Dock Limited are the yards that appear in this list.

The Cochin Shipyard has a total turnover of 280 million. The second in the list is the Hindustan shipyard that has a turnover of 132 million. The Mazgaon docks In Maharashtra has a turnover of 616 million. The next in the list is the Goa shipyard that has a turnover of 205 million. The garden reach shipyard has a turnover of 190 million. The last in the list of the key government players in the Indian shipbuilding industry is the Hoogly docks with a turnaround of 75 million. All these figures are in dollars.

The Scandinavian Connection

The shipbuilding industry is not only about construction of the vessels but also related equipment. Say for example the Viking lifesaving equipment is a Denmark based company. It was founded in 1960. The company makes lifejackets, life rafts, etc. It Supplies these to the marine industry all across the world. Viking came to India in 2010. It has its head office in Mumbai. The Viking has a turnaround of 210 million USD.

The SELCO is also a Denmark based company. It was also founded in 1960. It has subsidiaries in India, China and Middle East. The SELCO manufactures electronic goods. These include alarm system, power control, etc. The company came to India in 2009. The company imports products from Denmark and sells them in India. It has its office in Mumbai. These two are the Scandinavian connections of the shipbuilding industry in India.

SWOT Analysis

We will now discuss the SWOT analysis of the shipbuilding industry in India.

This will help you to understand the various aspects of the industry. The strengths of the shipbuilding industry in India are:

1. Large coastline for ships is a huge advantage. The county has a huge coastline.
2. Low cost of labor is another USP for the shipbuilding industry in India. There is labor available at low cost as India is a developing nation.
3. Strong labor force of India is a big strength for the shipbuilding industry in India. The labor is hardworking and efficient.
4. The government allows about thirty percent subsidy to the new ship building yards. This helps the shipbuilding industry in India a lot.

The weakness of the shipbuilding industry in India is as follows:

1. The government does not provide any financial support to the shipping companies in India.
2. There is no facility to build shipbuilding yards that have huge capacity.
3. There is a lack of skilled engineers and labors in the country who can work in a shipbuilding yards.
4. The government gives very little support to shipbuilding industry in India.
The opportunities that the shipbuilding industry in India are:

1. There is a huge demand for off shore oil exploration and production in India. There is also possibility of exploring oil abroad with collaborations.
2. There is a huge need for equipment in the new shipbuilding yards of the country.
3. There is a huge demand in India to repair the off shore oil platforms of the country.

The last in the section of the SWOT analysis of the shipbuilding industry in India is the threats. The threats are:

1. There is a huge lack of professionals and there is also no opportunity to do research and development in the industry.
2. The shipbuilding industry in India does not have a presence all across the country.
3. The shipbuilding industry in India is not given much recognition by the government of the country.
4. There is a high chance of order cancellation as the shipbuilding yards often fail to meet the timeline. This is a result of the problems that we have discussed so far in the article.

This is more or less the overall view of the shipbuilding industry in India. The shipbuilding industry in India needs to really look deep and find solutions to some of the problems if they want to compete with the world leaders in shipbuilding. India definitely has the potential just that the government of the country has to take some extra initiative.

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