5 Bangladeshi shipbuilders to participate in Hamburg fair

Five local ship-makers will participate in the world's biggest shipbuilding fair in Hamburg for the second time to showcase Bangladesh's capacity in building ocean-going vessels for the global shipping companies, officials said Saturday The Shipbuilding, Machinery and Marine Technology International Fair will be held from September 6 to September 10 in the German city, with the world's top ship-builders, engine makers and shipping companies taking part in the biannual fair.
"The EPB (Export Promotion Bureau) has booked a Bangladesh pavilion at the fair. Four local companies will take part there. Another local company will take part with its own stall there," said Tofayel Kabir Khan, a local ship-maker.
"We will have a chance to meet top shipping companies and highlight our potentials and capacity," Mr Khan, managing director of the Khan Brothers Shipbuilding Limited, a new shipbuilding entrepreneur, told the FE.
"Our target is to bag some new orders in the fair," he said adding Bangladeshi ship-makers are expecting export orders of nearly US$200 million in the Hamburg fair.
The country's pioneer shipbuilder Ananda Shipyard and Slipways Limited, Khan Brothers Shipbuilding Ltd, Dhaka Dockyard and Engineering Works Ltd and Karnaphuli Shipbuilders (Pvt) Ltd would take part in the Bangladesh pavilion in Hamburg fair.
Chittagong-based Western Marine Shipyard has said they would also take part in the fair taking another stall in the Germany's largest commercial city.
"In the past few months my company has been holding negotiations with a couple of Dutch and Danish shipping companies, which could be finalised in Hamburg,"said Mr Khan who set up a new dry-dock and slipways on a fifty-acre piece of land on the bank of the river Meghna in Munshiganj investing Tk700 million.
Shipbuilding is a new but booming industry in Bangladesh. Two leading ship-makers have already grabbed orders worth $600 million.
Mr. Khan said the fair would highlight the advancement Bangladesh's new ship makers achieved over the last couple of years.
"We will show to the world that we are now ready to emerge as a big shipbuilding nation. I am confident we will be able to attract the attention of top shipping companies to Bangladesh," he said
Chairman of the Ananda Shipyard Abdullahel Bari said his company would hold talks with some foreign shipping companies during the fair.
"We hope to win orders to build bigger ships," he said adding his company, which already won orders worth nearly $400 million, was now capable of building vessels weighing 15,000 dead weight tonnes (DWT).
The two other ship-makers Ananda and Western Marine have orders worth over US$ 600 million from buyers from Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and Mozambique.
Mr. Tofayel Khan said with expertise and abundant cheap labour, Bangladesh can emerge as a global shipbuilding hub as traditional shipbuilding countries such as Japan, South Korea and China are not interested to make ships weighing under 20,000 dwt.
More than 1,500 exhibitors from about 60 nations will showcase their latest technology and product developments in all areas of the maritime industry at the 24th edition of the Hamburg shipbuilding fair.