Bangladesh Shipbuilding industry now a promising sector

The shipbuilding industry in Bangladesh is now becoming a promising sector as it has signed several contracts with Danish investors to build multipurpose vessels. On at least two instances, Danish shipping interests recently have placed substantial orders with Bangladeshi shipyards. Ananda Shipyard in Meghna Ghat and CS and Partnere A/S, a Danish ship consortium, have signed a agreement to build a ship, said a press release.

The first ship – a 2,900 DWT multi-purpose vessel currently under construction at Ananda Shipyard and will be delivered in early 2008 – is the first of a series of up to 14 ships ordered by the Danish investors.The second order landed by a Bangladeshi shipyard was when Western Marine in Chittagong signed a contract to build up to 5 multipurpose vessels (4,100 DWT) to be delivered to a Danish ship consortium. ‘The two orders have positioned these shipyards as serious players in the international shipbuilding industry in strong competition with Chinese and Vietnamese shipbuilders, said Danish Ambassador to Bangladesh Einar Hebogard Jensen. ‘In order to live up to the highest international standards to design ship and to obtain international accreditation from bureaus such as “Germanisher Lloyd” and “Norske Veritas” it will be important for the shipyards to be able to import various fittings and components necessary for the ships to reach an international standard,’ Einar commented. “To live up to export requirements, it will be essential that a mechanism can be introduced for facilitating an easy clearance of such fittings and components when imported. A “Green Channel” like in the textile industry could probably provide necessary flexibility for the involved parties,” the ambassador said.

The Ambassador continues: “To our knowledge, Ananda Shipyard and Western Marine are breaking new grounds in Bangladesh in their endeavours to succeed in these projects. The orders obtained will be instrumental in bringing Bangladesh into the picture as a serious player for building ships for the international shipping market. He also added that a number of potential ship owners are watching closely the development of the Ananda Shipyard and Western Marine projects.“If these assignments prove successful, the ship building industry in Bangladesh will play a very important role in future competition against ship building nations like Vietnam and China,’ the diplomat mentioned. He also claimed that successful shipbuilding ventures will have a tremendous positive impact on job generation, technology transfer and export revenues, and help Bangladesh to create another ‘thrust’ sector like export-oriented readymade garments and textiles and IT.

Source: http://www.newstoday-bd.com/business.asp?newsdate=11/15/2007#5260