Indian yard to purchase additional land for shipbuilding facilities

Indian state-owned shipbuilder Cochin Shipyard (CSL) will expand its existing manufacturing facilities in Kerala following the purchase of some of the 60 hectares of adjoining land owned by the Cochin Port Authority.

According to government officials, the proposed new shipyard will be owned by CSL but will be developed in cooperation with overseas partners.

Around INR2 trillion (US$23 million) will be invested for the land purchase, which is part of CSL's ongoing program of capacity expansion.

In August last year, CSL inaugurated a new international ship repair yard on Wellington Island in Cochin Harbour. The company said the new repair facility will help transform CSL into a global ship repair hub and increase India's ship repair capacity by about 25 per cent.

Indian media have reported on the urgency of India's shipbuilding capacity expansion, as other major shipbuilding countries such as China, South Korea and Japan will all be fully booked by 2028.

Observers therefore believe India needs to quickly expand its shipbuilding capacity to have a bigger share of the market.