Garden Reach Shipbuilders bag export order for commercial vessels worth $54 million

KOLKATA : Defence PSU Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Limited (GRSE) on June 22 signed an agreement with German firm Carsten Rehder Schiffsmakler and Reederei GmbH & Co KG for the construction and delivery of four multi-purpose vessels of 7,500 DWT each, with an option of building another four ships in the near future.

As part of the order worth $54 million, Garden Reach Shipbuilders will be designing, building, and delivering the vessels after completion within a time period of 33 months.

The vessels will be 120 metres long and 17 metres wide with a maximum draft of 6.75 metres. Each of them can carry 7,500 metric tonnes of cargo. The vessels will have a single cargo hold each to accommodate bulk, general and project cargoes. Containers will be carried on hatch covers. The ships have been specifically designed to carry multiple large windmill blades on deck.

According to an exchange filing by GRSE, “The agreement was signed between GRSE and M/s Carsten Rehder Schiffsmakler and Reederei GmbH & Co, represented by Cdr Shantanu Bose, Director (Shipbuilding) and Carsten Thomas Rehder, Managing Director respectively in the presence of Cmde PR Hari, IN (Retd), Chairman & Managing Director, GRSE.”

“Among senior officials, RK Dash, Director (Finance), GRSE, DIG Subrato Ghosh, ICG (Retd), Director (Personnel), GRSE, and Mr Jonas Meinhardt, Managing Director of M/s Carsten Rehder were present,” it added.

On Friday, Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Enginers Ltd share price closed at Rs 1,649.00 which was down Rs 112.20 (6.37 percent).

GRSE reported a 48 percent increase in net profit to Rs 49.69 crore during the quarter ended March 2020, despite a fall in its income in the period. The warship maker had reported a net profit of Rs 33.62 crore in the corresponding period of 2018-19. Total income decreased by 5.51 percent to Rs 509.48 crore in the quarter under review from Rs 539.17 crore in the year-ago period, a statement said.

In the year 2014, the company manufactured the CGS Barracuda, an offshore patrol vessel that was exported to Mauritius. This was the first warship to be exported by India. In 2021, the GRSE-built fast patrol vessel PS Zoroaster, which was exported to the Seychelles. The ship returned to GRSE earlier this year for a refit that was completed in record time.

The shipyard is also currently working on six patrol boats and a TSH dredger for the Government of Bangladesh. In 2023, GRSE delivered the MV Ma Lisha, a passenger-cum cargo ocean-going ferry to the Cooperative Republic of Guyana. It is the largest and most advanced ferry in that country now.