Economic meltdown: Little impact on Indian shipyards

Global economic meltdown had very little impact on Indian shipyards whose order book is intact unlike the major shipbuilding countries like South Korea, China and Japan accounting for 84% of the global market.        

"Despite the global economy not doing well and slowdown in certain sectors, Indian shipbuilding yards have not seen great impact," ABG Shipyard CFO Dhananjay Datar told.        

The global credit crisis has affected Korean and Chinese shipyards, which are seeing order cancellation in dry bulk and wet bulk carriers, he said.        

The company has Rs 11,400 cr worth of orders to build 105 ships. It is building 66 offshore supply vessels and 39 bulk carriers. ABG Shipyard is the largest private shipyard in the country.        
Many of ABG's clients are foreigners. "We are not taking any new orders for bulk carriers as our capacity is full till 2013," he said.        

However, it is in talks with clients for orders on offshore supply vessels. "Enquiry on offshore vessels is good. We are talking to couple of people for new orders," he said.        

Hindustan Shipyard, which handles both government and private clients, has not not seen any order cancellations, a top official of the company said.        

It has on order to build 10 bulk carriers and five patrol vessels for Coast Guard.