By:Sudha S. Namboothiry,16 June:The Cochin Shipyard Ltd., the largest Greenfield shipyard in the country made history when five platform supply vessels were floated on June 2, 2008 at Cochin simultaneously. The ships launched were the seventh in a series of eight ships under construction for Deep Sea Supply, Norway, two out of 4 ships for M/s Hellespont Steamship corporation, Greece and M/s Tidewater Marine International Inc, USA.
Cochin shipyard is one of the leading shipbuilding & repair yard in India, which has an infrastructure that combines economy, scale, and flexibility, and has ISO 9001 accreditation. The yard is also constructing 20 similar ships for European/American clients valued at over Rs. 2000 crore. These projects are being undertaken exclusive of the Air Defence Ship for the Indian Navy which is also presently under construction. Cochin Shipyard’s proposal for creation of Small Ship Division has been approved by the Government. The project is expected to be completed by March 2009. On completion these facilities would help the shipyard to undertake concurrent construction of small commercial ships with the Aircraft carrier.
The attitude is well expressed in the message of the Shipyard Chairman & Managing Director Commodore Shri M.Jitendran, “Ours is an endeavor to emerge as an internationally competitive yard and facilitate the emergence of India as a dominant ship building and ship repair centre of the region. Cochin Shipyard promises quality service, outstanding workmanship, timely delivery, reliable personnel and excellent coordination that does not leave you feeling at sea …” True to the message, the Shipyard is moving ahead in leaps and bounds to achieve its goal.
It has been a saga of records for the Shipyard since the past five years. Like a phoenix the Shipyard has arisen from its not-so-good times to a profit making company. The total turnover of the company has increased threefolds ie, from Rs.235 crore in 2002-03 to Rs.720 crore in the year 2006-07. Record ship building turnover of Rs.478 crore was achieved in the year 2006-07. This achievement was again surpassed in 2007-08 with the shipbuilding income reaching Rs 600 crore(provisional). The performance of ship repair department has also been commendable and the Ship repair turnover crossed Rs. 240 crore mark in the year 2007-08. The net profit of the company registered a three fold increase in 2006-07 ie., from Rs. 18 crore in 2005-06 to Rs. 58 crore in 2006-07. The financial performance in the year 2007-08 is expected to surpass all previous records.
Cochin Shipyard was incorporated in the year 1972 as a fully owned Government company. In the last three decades the company has emerged as a forerunner in the Indian Shipbuilding & Shiprepair Industry. This yard can build and repair the largest vessels in India. It can build ships upto 1,10,000 DWT and repair ships upto 1,25,000 DWT. The yard has many a feather on its hat like it has delivered two of India’s largest double hull Aframax tankers each of 95,000 DWT , has built various types of vessels including Tankers, Bulk Carriers, Port Crafts, Passenger Vessels etc. CSL has secured shipbuilding orders from internationally renowned companies from Europe & Middle East.
Shipyard commenced ship repair operations in the year 1982 and has undertaken repairs of all types of ships including upgradation of ships of oil exploration industry as well as periodical lay up repairs and life extension of ships of Navy, UTL, Coast Guard, Fisheries and Port Trust besides merchant ships of SCI & ONGC. The yard has, over the years, developed adequate capabilities to handle complex and sophisticated repair jobs. It is ISO 9001-2000 certified for Design and manufacture of small & medium crafts upto 900 GRT , construction of ships upto 1,10,000 DWT, Repair of ships upto 1,25,000 DWT, Training of marine engineers & conducting of fire fighting courses. The Shipyard also trains graduate engineers to marine engineers who later join ships both Indian and foreign as 5th Engineers.