Gautam Adani planning to build ships at Mundra Port in Gujarat

AHMEDABAD : The Adani Group is considering building ships at its flagship Mundra Port in the Kutch, Gujarat. This comes as other major ship building ports in China, Japan and South Korea are “booked out” till 2028 leaving a gap in demand for new vessels, it added.

Notably, India is at present #20 in the global commercial ship building market (0.05 per cent share) and aims to be in the top 10 by 2030 and top 5 by 2047, per the ‘Maritime Amrit Kaal Vision 2047’ released by PM Shri Narendra Modi in January this year.

Potential Growth Market

India’s potential for the market is pegged at around $62 billion net by 2047, as per a KPMG document on the industry, submitted to the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways earlier this month, it added. Further, the potential jobs creation is pegged at 12 million, as per the same document.

The Gautam Adani-led pivot to the shipbuilding also comes as the industry looks for green ships — with requirement numbered around 50,000 vessels over the next 30 years to replace all old-school ones, the report added.

Notably, Adani has the acreage and environment approvals due to its SEZ status to enter this heavy engineering sector fairly quickly, the report added. It is also better placed in terms of competing, as Indian shipyards are currently outbid by foreign shipyards due to as much as 35 per cent of “cost disadvantage”.

India has eight state-owned ship building yards (seven of which are Defence Ministry owned), and 20 private ones (where only L&T builds defence vessels). The KPMG document showed that most capacity at Indian yards was skewed towards naval vessels and not commercial ones, the report added.