Mazagon Dock Seeks Partners for Rs 20,000 Crore Shipbuilding Clusters
Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd (MDL), the state-owned shipyard based in Mumbai, is looking for equity partners to fund two new greenfield shipbuilding clusters on India’s coasts. One is planned at Dighi on Maharashtra’s Konkan coast, south of Mumbai, next to Dighi Port. The other is at Dugarajapatnam on the southern coast of Andhra Pradesh, facing the Bay of Bengal.
The two projects need a total investment of about Rs 20,000 crore over five to seven years. Each cluster is designed to build ships of up to 1.2 million gross tonnage (GT) a year, developed in phases starting at 500,000 GT. MDL has already signed agreements worth about Rs 30,000 crore with the Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh governments, and both clusters have in-principle approval from the National Shipbuilding Mission.
Funding is planned as 70% debt and 30% equity, which means about Rs 6,500 crore of equity across both sites. MDL will first form a 50:50 joint venture with the Maritime Investment Fund managed by SBI Ventures, and says its own stake will not fall below 26%. Investors from the United States and Germany have shown interest. MDL told the stock exchanges that the plans are broadly as reported, but terms are still being evaluated and need approvals.
The clusters are part of India’s push to grow commercial shipbuilding at home and build more of the ships that carry its trade, a key goal of the Maritime Amrit Kaal Vision 2047.
For Indian seafarers, large new yards could bring more shore jobs in ship construction, supervision, commissioning and sea trials, which suit experienced marine engineers and officers. A bigger Indian-built fleet may also create more sea berths for Indian crews in the years ahead.
