Bharati Shipyard to tie up with Apeejay Shipping to set up two shipyards on East Coast of India at $ 769 million
India’s second largest ship builder, Bharati Shipyard Ltd, has firmed up plans to set up two mega shipyards on the East coast of India through the joint venture (JV) route. The 50 : 50 JV between Bharati Shipyard and Apeejay Shipping, the latter a unit of the Kolkata based Apeejay Surrendra Group, will set up the two shipyards at a cost of $ 769 million.
The Apeejay Surrendra Group is one of the largest private groups in India. The $1153.8 million business conglomerate has its core activity centered round Tea, hospitality, shipping, retail and real estate. Bharati Shipyard on the other hand which has nine shipyards on both the coasts of India focuses on ship building, maintenance and repairs.
According to the sources the two yards will be designed to undertake ship building, ship repairs and maintenance activity and will be located on the East coast of India. One will be near Dhamra in Orissa’s Bhadrak district to be spread over 800 to 1,000 acres land and would have sufficient draft to build and repair ships of 320,000 GT.
“The reason we want to have two separate shipyards is that each one will be concentrating on different segments,” said Mr V. Kumar, Managing Director of Bharati Shipyard Ltd. “We are looking for land to set up this venture for which the investment will be around $ 576.9 to $ 769.2 million. Here we are planning to build vessels of up to VLCCs size. Initially we plan to produce 10 to 15 ships annually.
“Apart from the six shipyards, Bharati has the basic clearance for setting up 2 major shipyards on the east coast also. This is a joint venture with Apeejay group, Kolkata. It is currently got bogged down to some extent due to the land acquisition problems and also the meltdown in world economy.”
Apeejay Surrendra Group employs close to 42,000 people in rapidly expanding operations in Tea, Hospitality, Shipping, Real Estate & Retail and Financial Services. The family values that have nurtured the Group continue to guide the conglomerate as it diversifies into new initiatives like Shipyards, Logistics & Knowledge Parks.
Bharati Shipyard on the other hand has earned its reputation in constructing a large array of specialized sophisticated vessels for diverse offshore, coastal and the marine market sectors. Their product range includes highly maneuverable and power packed offshore vessels including AHTS, PSV’s and MSV’s of varying bollard pulls, Tractor and ASD tugs, state of the art dredgers, deep sea fishing vessels, cargo and container ships, tankers and Ro- Ro Vessels.
By operating from six locations Bharati Shipyard has integrated tremendous amount of flexibility to construct a large number of vessels in a limited time period. Each of the six shipyards are well equipped with requisite facilities such as slipways, large fabrication shop, outfit berths & basins, granty cranes and mobile cranes etc. The company is currently expanding and modernizing its production facilities with plans to expand nationally, in order to build larger vessels over 200 meters in length and oil exploration rigs, the first of which is already being constructed now at its shipyard in Dabhol.
There are several hurdles experienced by ship builders in India among these being shortage of labor and trained professionals, excessive government regulations, infrastructural hurdles, roads, power, dredging of areas where ships are built viz, River or Sea. Subsidy can help tide over the difficulties and provide a level playing field to compete internationally.