Local firm wins $4.25m order to build tug boat for Singapore
Bond system to spur shipyards growth suggested
Rafiq Hassan
A Bangladeshi shipyard has won a $ 4.25 million order to build a powerful tug boat for a Singapore based company, again testifying to the potential of the local ship building industry at a time when Chinese and South Korean yards are losing interest in producing small ocean-going vessels.A formal agreement, worth around Tk 30 crore, was signed between the Western Marine Shipyard at Chittagong and Maroci Lines Private Limited of Singapore to construct the 4,800 horse power anchor handling tug supply vessel, sources said. Managing Director of Western Marine Shipyard Sakhawat Hossain signed the agreement during a meeting in Singapore on April 27. The tug will be constructed in one year with the internationally renowned classification society Germanscher Lloyd supervising the construction work. The same company earlier won an order worth $11 million to construct a 26,000 tonne capacity ship for a buyer in Europe and last month Ananda Shipyards Shipways (ASSL) at Meghnaghat received an export order from German companies of around $100 million for constructing eight ships. Bangladesh has become a new destination for companies seeking construction of small ocean-going vessels as traditional shipbuilding nationals, such as South Korea and China, are now focusing on bigger ships. Talking to The Daily Star, Sakhawat Hossain said the ship builders were also looking for new construction places, as South Korea, China and Vietnam have no capacity to take new orders. All the shipyards in those countries are fully booked until 2010, he said. At least one hundred such orders are waiting now in Singapore, he told The Daily Star saying that only a few orders are arriving in Bangladesh as the country lacks large-scale ship building facilities. The government's tight export-import policies are also a major barrier for a flourishing shipbuilding industry in the country, he said. "If the government provides back to back letter of credit facilities to the ship building industries, hundreds of shipyards would be set up in the country within a few years earning billions of dollars of foreign currency," he said. Steel is the main raw materials for shipbuilding on which the government charges 40 per cent custom duty. As a result, building a ship here becomes costlier, he said. In order to develop shipyards and provide employment to thousands of workers, the government can provide facilities under a bond system as is being done in the garments sector, Sakhawat said.
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