Bangladesh yard signs export deal

Another Bangladesh shipbuilding company signed a memorandum of understanding with a Dutch firm to supply eight sea-going vessels worth $87 million. Highspeed Shipbuilding & Engineering Co Ltd signed the MoU with Hollander Scholtens (HS), in Groningen, to start construction of the vessels in December this year.

Highspeed, specialises in building small riverine cargo and passenger vessels, will be the third company to build ships for foreign buyers. Earlier, Ananda Shipyard and Western Marine Shipyard Ltd, entered the global shipbuilding market with $350 million orders from Denmark, Germany and Mozambique.

“Our cost of production is highly competitive compared to other foreign shipyards. So, foreign buyers are now placing orders in Bangladesh shipyards,” K.M. Mahmood Ur Rahman, managing director of the company, said while signing agreement with representatives of Hollander Scholtens.

European shipbuilding companies are all booked with orders till 2010, while the Asian shipbuilders in Korea, Japan, China, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam have bulging order books. This has created a good opportunity for the country’s expanding shipbuilding industry to grab a chunk of this huge global export market worth $300 billion. Bangladesh has a competitive edge over its Asian rivals because its cheap and skilled workforce.

Highspeed Shipbuilding and Engineering expects it could complete building 9,000 dwt capacity ships by April 2012. The company will now have to upgrade its infrastructure and modernise its facility at Fatullah in the next nine months before starting work on this contract.