Startek to finalise location for new yard

The Chennai-based Startek Shipyards Pvt Ltd will shortly finalise the location for its second shipyard. Deepak Rao Beedu, executive director, said: “We are looking at Chennai and two other locations south of Chennai. As the discussions are in the final stages, I am not in a position to divulge more.”

Currently manufacturing inland waterway dredgers at its Manali facility in Chennai, Startek wants the new facility near the sea so that it can manufacture bigger vessels like tugs, barges, workboats and offshore supply vessels. The new facility would involve an outlay of Rs.400 million and requires five acres of land.

For tugs, Startek is targeting the overseas market while in the barges segment it will be aiming at the niche sectors like oil carriers and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinder carriers. The company has already booked orders for two barges from the Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) and two tugs from the Mauritius Port Authority. The company?s order book position is Rs.650 million providing about two years of work.

“The demand is now buoyant thanks to the development of minor ports, inland waterways cleaning projects as well as setting up of new power plants. Until last year, the demand for small vessels used to be just two or three units but in the last three months, we have booked orders for five dredgers,” said Beedu.