India may start building its own dredgers

Cochin Shipyard-DCI tie up on anvil; SCI to join business too

The shipping ministry has devised a strategy that could help the country’s largest shipbuilding company tide over the current crisis in the sector and at the same time also build the much needed dredging capacity of the country.

The government wants the Cochin Shipyard to get into manufacturing dredgers which will be bought by the Dredging Corporation of India.

In a three-way partnership, DCI would buy the dredgers and deploy it for dredging work at the Paradip Port. The shipping ministry is keen to go ahead with the project after finalizing the cost structure and taking stock of the shipyard’s capacity to take up such an order. It recently convened a meeting of the three parties.

Cochin Shipyard is also the government's divestment list and dredging business could help it in perking up it order book. Till now, defence orders have helped the shipyard to perform well.

“The industry has been struggling with oversupply and shipyards are not getting any new orders from shipping companies. Dredging could be a good diversification for Cochin Shipyard,” said Hemant Bhattbhatt, senior director, Deloitte India.

A similar plan is also in the offing for the Shipping Corporation of India. SCI is expected to get into the dredging business and provide its services to the Kandla Port. SCI plans to buy its own dredgers and deploy it at the Kandla Port.

Such cross-fundings aside, dredging itself has continued to be a sore-point for many Indian ports. The Kolkata Port, for instance, is a riverine port with siltation all the year round has put a lot of pressure on its funds because of huge maintenance dredging bills.

It hampers larger vessels from docking on the port since the draught is too less. Even in sea facing ports, both capital dredging (when dredging is done for the first time) and maintenance dredging have gained more importance than ever before. Ports like Jawaharlal Nehru Port, Chennai, Tuticorin have employed dredgers to improve the draft to 14 meters at their respective ports.  

Vessels like VLCCs (Very Large Crude Carriers) and capsize vessels require a draught of 14 meters and cannot dock on ports which don’t have sufficient depth. Most Indian ports today have a draft of less than 12 meters.

As the trade shifts to modern vessels the draft requirement has is expected to go up to 14-17 meters. Currently ports capable of berthing large vessels include Gagavaram, Vallarpadam and Kandla Port.

Most major ports are still in the process of achieving such depth. This year’s budget has allocated Rs 600 crore for capital dredging projects and dredging and survey organization as compared to Rs 245 crore last year. None of the Indian companies have the wherewithal to manufacture large dredgers.

For instance, DCI has procured its dredgers from IHC, Holland, a market leader in this space, because the technology is not available in India.

“India has no real capacity in dredging business. Because of its expertise in shipbuilding, Cochin Shipyard can manufacture the “hull” of the dredger but may have to find a partner to build the machinery,” said K Mohandas, former shipping secretary.  

Besides, DCI the Indian companies which provide dredging services include Jaisu Shipping, Mercator. Most of the companies source the machinery from European countries for large scale projects.