CDL gets ship building orders for US$ 220 mn

Shirajiv SIRIMANE

The Colombo Dockyard (CDL) has undertaken ship building contracts from overseas to the tune of over US$ 220 million this year. Managing Director of CDL, Mangala Yapa told Daily News Business at their 20th celebratory functions with Onomichi Dockyard Company of Japan at Cinnamon Grand, that they would be expecting more orders by mid year. “This should be the highest value of foreign contracts that we have undertaken per year to date.”

He said that among the highlights of these tenders would be the building of two 400 seat passenger ships for an Indian company. “Both these tenders are for more than US$ 60 million.

“In addition, we will also build four vessels for Singapore companies and the first would be ready by the end of the month,” he said. He also added that each vessel would cost around US$ 26 million.

Currently, they are in the process of negotiating for some European tenders.

Recalling the past, he said that the company went through a lean patch in 1979.

“However, we recovered, thanks to the collaboration with Onomichi Dockyard, Japan, who still holds a 51% stake, with government assistance and mainly due to their dedicated staff, who are one of the biggest contributors of foreign exchange to the country, mainly through the ship repairing business.

He said that today, CDL boasts of the biggest dry dock repair facility in the region and pioneered the local ship industry to international levels.

“My vision for the future would be to nurture a more appropriate corporate ethos for Colombo Dockyard. I firmly believe that our uniquely Sri Lankan qualities should form the basis of a philosophy that integrates Japanese values and western capitalistic ideals best suited for our requirements.

"A corporate value culture of this nature would certainly redefine the cultural fabric of the company and propel Colombo Dockyard to the pinnacle of global marine services in the future,” he added.

Under the expertise of our Japanese partner, we sought to weed out incompetence and trim inefficiencies, thereby, gaining a solid foothold on international competitiveness.

In the years since the collaboration we have also been greatly influenced by the Japanese value culture,” he said. Akihiko Nakauchi, Chairman, CDL said that they have been inspired to showcase our ship repair and ship building capabilities on an expanding international landscape. Our prudent approach has deservedly earned us the reputation as a consistent, high quality maritime solutions provider.

“In the recent past, we have been successful in carving out certain niche markets. Our expertise is highly sought after across the globe, particularly in the manufacture of sophisticated Offshore Vessels. We are also gaining momentum in the region as a Builder of Efficient, Economic and Environment friendly passenger vessels. These are definitely encouraging signs and provide the impetus to strive for bigger things in the years to come,” he added.