http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=58356
Local firms to shell out Tk500cr on shipbuilding
Jasim Uddin Khan
Six Bangladeshi business groups will invest over Tk 500 crore in a year to establish shipbuilding facilities across the country, sensing high export potential of the industry.
The business houses with expertise in real estate, steel sector and engineering works have already formed separate firms and acquired land for their shipbuilding projects.
The groups that started their shipbuilding projects are real-estate company Rangs Properties Ltd, steel maker PHP Group, consumer products leader Meghna Group, trading house Khan Brothers, engineering products maker Bengal Electric Ltd and automobile distributor Nitol-Niloy Group.
They initiated their projects mainly in Narayanganj, Munshiganj and Chittagong.
Rangs Group Director Major (retd) Abul Fatah said the group had formed a separate company styled Desh Shipbuilding that recently won a licence to start operation.
The group carved out an alliance with a Chittagong-based marine engineering consortium, Prantik Consortium, to set up their project at Sadar Ghat in the port city.
“Desh Shipbuilding has its own land at Sadar Ghat where the project site has already been developed, and the company planned to invest around Tk 100 crore to set up world-class dockyard and slipways,” said Fatah, also project coordinator of Desh Shipbuilding.
If work goes in full swing, the project will be able to start making ships for export within one year, he said.
Asked why the company is joining shipbuilding industry, Fatah said Bangladesh has a broad chance to emerge as a leading shipbuilding nation as many established shipbuilders elsewhere in the world are no longer interested in building small ships.
PHP Group with a Tk 2,000 crore annual turnover is planning to develop a modern shipbuilding facility at its Bhatiary ship-breaking site in Chittagong.
“The company has adequate and suitable land at Vhatiary for the project,” said Ershadul Mostafa, manager (Commercial) of PHP Group.
An official involved with the project said the initial investment would be no less than Tk 100 crore.
Meghna Group having an annual turnover of Tk 4,000 crore will build the country’s biggest shipbuilding facility at a cost of Tk 220 crore.
The group has already signed an agreement with South Korea’s STX Heavy Industries to set up the state-of-the-art shipbuilding yard and slipways.
“We have started developing land at Meghnaghat on the river Meghna initially to make around 10 ships at a time. The capacity will increase further depending on international orders,” said Mostafa Kamal, managing director of the company.
STX is one of the top six shipbuilders in South Korea.
Khan Brothers invested around Tk 16 crore to develop a shipbuilding infrastructure at Gazaria in Munshiganj near the Meghna Bridge.
Tofael Kabir Khan, managing director of the company, said his company had constructed four slipways but full development of the project was being delayed due to non-availability of bank loans it sought.
He said the investment would stand at Tk 100 crore if the promised funds from banks were available.
He said the company is negotiating with some international buyers who want to place orders for building four oceangoing ships.
Bengal Electric also acquired around 50 acres of land in Munshiganj to start shipbuilding for export.
The company’s Chairman Abdus Salam yesterday said his company would start constructing slipways in a few months.
Salam said the country has become a new home for making small oceangoing vessels with traditional shipbuilding nations such as South Korea and China now focusing on building large ships.
A high official of Nitol-Niloy Group said the company would develop a large shipbuilding site soon.
The country came under the spotlight in April last year when Ananda Shipyard and Slipways Ltd signed $100 million worth of deals with two German companies to build eight ships to be delivered by June 2010.
Local firms Ananda, Western Marine and Highspeed Group have already bagged export orders worth nearly $500 million since the country emerged as a new global destination for shipbuilding last year.
