The shipbuilder had reported a net profit of Rs 632.01 crore in the year ended March from a revenue of Rs 3,422.49 crore.
Cochin Shipyard (CSL) is apparently pulling out all the stops to achieve last year’s revenues and one of its major steps is ramping up workforce on site to make up for the pandemic-triggered disruption. It has increased its workforce by 1,200 to ramp up operations in Kochi and other facilities.
The shipbuilder had reported a net profit of Rs 632.01 crore in the year ended March from a revenue of Rs 3,422.49 crore.
Ship building, including the aircraft carrier, and repair are behind schedule because of the pandemic and foreign travel restrictions, chairman and managing director (CMD) Madhu S Nair told FE.
“Some of the vessels are reaching milestones, but we are struggling to get the service engineers for the OEMs supplied by foreign companies in the ships. Indian OEM supplies were also affected initially, but now we have managed to bring them on site,” he said.
“The pandemic impacted ship building and repair in both Cochin and Mumbai and we are trying to see if we can attain last year’s performance,” he added.
CSL reported a standalone profit of Rs 43 crore in the quarter ended March, down from Rs 139 crore in Q1 FY20, with Covid-19 lockdown disrupting operations from March 23 to May 5.
The shipyard has an order book of Rs 14,000 crore and recently expanded its capacity by taking over the distressed TEBMA Shipyard (TSL) and constructing a yard at its 100% subsidiary Hooghly Cochin Shipyard in Kolkata.
Nair said CSL was eying opportunities in inland, coastal, fishing and special vessels segments, besides aspiring to spin off a dedicated vertical for fishing vessels.
“Hooghly will be a dedicated facility for construction of vessels for inland waterways. Tebma will focus on smaller and fishing vessels. We are starting with fishing vessels for the domestic market under the Union government’s Blue Revolution and then will look at the export market after gaining experience,” he said.
The company has also delivered 11 out of 16 fishing vessels contracted for Tamil Nadu beneficiaries. The remaining five are also ready to be delivered.
The CMD added that the company had forayed into the construction of autonomous electric vessels for ASKO Maritime AS, Norway.
Nisham Ismail