Indigenous carrier hull is 85% ready

Project is in good shape: Cochin Ship Yard CMD

The Cochin Ship Yard, which is building India's first indigenous aircraft carrier, said that about 85 per cent of work relating to the vessel's hull are complete. The Government of India enterprise has said that the project is in good shape.

Speaking on the sidelines of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII's) conference on 'Approach to Integrated Maritime Systems' in Chennai, Commodore K Subramaniam (retd), chairman and managing director, Cochin Ship Yard, said, “Around 85 per cent of the hull is complete and 90 per cent of the fabrication is over. About 85 per cent of the erection has also been completed.” However, he did not share the time line for delivery of the vessel.

He added that several innovations have had to be made during the process of building the aircraft carrier. For example, according to him, the Navy wanted a 14-degree ski-jump in the voxle of the ship for easy take-off for fighter planes for which a big piece of iron had to be welded that needed trimming down of the ship at the front. “We have employed a big piece of iron in the hull area which will function as a buoyant which has made the keel of the hull float horizontally,” he added.

Similarly, in welding, AC plants and refrigerators “enormous” levels of indigenousness have gone in, said Subramaniam, adding that the deg- ree of indigenous equipment in the aircraft carrier is very high, barring the aviation for which the county was dependent on Russia. “We can say around 80 per cent of the ship is indigenous,”

The metal sheets used for the building of the ship was designed by the Hyderabad-based Defence Research Development Laboratory and prod- uction was being done by Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL).

Betting big on ship repair

The shipyard, which is also into building vessels for commercial purpose said that as part of its derisking strategy, it would focus on ship repairs, which according to Subramaniam is an “evergreen” business while shipbuilding is cyclical.

The company is investing around Rs 480 crore on setting up ship repair facility which will be spread over 40 acres.

According to him, the ship repair industry globally is estimated to be around $12 billion (around Rs 60,000 crore). India's share is estimated to be around Rs 1,000 crore.

The company, which clocked around Rs 200 crore from ship repair set a target of trebling it in the coming years. “Apart from the volumes, margins are also good in this business,” said Subramaniam.

In 2004, the company clocked revenues of around Rs 350 crore, which was increased to Rs 1,700 crore today.

The PAT has increased to Rs 194 crore from Rs 12-18 crore, said Subramaniam.