Western Marine opens construction of two ships for Indian co

The Western Marine Shipyard yesterday initiated the construction for two 8,000 DWT cargo vessel for the Indian business conglomerate Jindal Group through a keel laying ceremony at its shipyard at Patiya in Chittagong.

The shipyard has signed a contract with Jindal Steel Works, a subsidiary of Jindal Group, for building six units of 8000 dead weight tonnage cargo vessels in March this year in Mumbai. The yard officials along with representatives of financial bank: Bank Asia Ltd and class: Indian Register of Shipping, were present at the keel laying ceremony.

The yard representatives said they would be building six units of the ships: two units to be delivered in the first phase by 2016 and the rest four units to be built in the second phase after successful completion of the first phase. Each ship will be built for Tk 480 million, as such, it is one of the highest worth contract Bangladesh has signed so far with India. Bank Asia Ltd is the financial partner to Western Marine for construction of the first two ships of this series. The ships will be built under class Indian Register of Shipping (IRS) having the compliance “RSV-4” which is the highest compliance for inland and coastal ships in India as per Indian Department of Shipping.

These ships will carry iron-ore and coal to the Steel Factory & Power Plant of Jindal in Joigarh and finished products – steel coils. Shipyard officials said it is a pride for Bangladesh shipbuilding industry to have associated with a renowned organization like Jindal. The two countries will come into stronger ties and the bilateral trade between India and Bangladesh will be enhanced.
Source: SAA