Cochin Shipyard plans ₹6,000 crore projects in Vallarpadam and Thoothukudi

CSL plans a steel block fabrication facility at Vallarpadam and is exploring a shipbuilding and repair unit at Thoothukudi, with investments totalling around ₹6,000 crore

State-owned Cochin Shipyard Ltd plans to invest around ₹6,000 crore in two projects pertaining to shipbuilding and repair work. 

 

The firm plans to pour in around ₹4,000 crore in a steel block fabrication facility at Vallarpadam in Kochi to expand construction of larger vessels. Separately, it is exploring an investment of around ₹2,000 crore at V. O. Chidambaranar Port in Thoothukudi to increase shipbuilding and repair capacity, according to a top executive.

 

 "We already have one existing dry dock for shipbuilding and have now commissioned a larger dry dock. But, our current steel throughput is not sufficient to cater to the new infrastructure if we are to construct larger vessels. We are, therefore, planning to set up a steel block fabrication facility at Vallarpadam," said Jose V J, chairman and managing director, CSL.

  

Ships are built by fabricating steel. Steel plates are fabricated into blocks, which are then erected to make a ship.

 

This comes as Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways (MoPSW) Sarbananda Sonowal said on Friday that CSL has received orders "from foreign countries like Germany, America, and Norway" for the construction of “more than 40 ships”.

 

CSL expects the Vallarpadam project to see an investment of around ₹3,000 crore-4,000 crore. "We plan to lease around 78 acres — around 60 acres from Cochin Port and approximately 18 acres from the Kerala government — for the purpose," the chairman added.

 

The company is also planning to come up with a new unit at V. O. Chidambaranar Port in Thoothukudi that would focus on ship repair, as well as the construction of small and medium-sized ships, including tugs. "It could be anywhere around ₹1,500 to 2,000 crore, as per very preliminary assessments. The actual investment will be clear once we have a DPR (detailed project report) in place," Jose added.

 

CSL also clarified that the 40 orders from across the globe mentioned by Sonowal were already part of the Kerala-based shipbuilder's existing order book. As of today, CSL's order book stands at around ₹22,300 crore. Of this, shipbuilding accounts for ₹21,100 crore and ship repair for ₹1,200 crore.

 

"We have also emerged as L1 in a competitive bid for five Next Generation Survey Vessels (NGSVs) for the Indian Navy. The order value is around ₹5,000 crore. Since the formal contract is yet to be signed, it has not been added to the order book. Once the contract is signed, our order book will be around ₹27,300 crore," Jose added.

 

Of this ₹27,000 crore, around ₹17,000 crore will be defence, ₹1,700 crore will be commercial domestic and ₹7,300 crore will be commercial exports. "Europe is the main market, particularly Germany and Norway," he said about export markets.

 

This comes as CSL has already completed a large capital cycle, investing around ₹3,000 crore in two facilities — a large dry dock of around 310 metres in length and an International Ship Repair Facility (ISRF) at the Cochin Port premises.

 

The Cabinet had recently approved a proposal for setting up a ship repair facility at Vadinar, Gujarat. "The Centre has announced two ship repair clusters — one in Cochin and the other in Vadinar. Cochin Shipyard is leading both. For the Vadinar facility, we are planning to invest around ₹920 crore, while Deendayal Port Authority will invest around ₹650 crore in civil infrastructure. CSL plans to position two large floating dry docks for undertaking ship repair activities there," Jose added.