ABG plans expansion

ABG Shipyard in Mumbai, India, plans to raise up to $100 million to expand its ship-building capacity to match rising demand. The company is already building its second shipyard at Dahej with a capacity to build larger ships than at the first site in Surat. The new yard is expected to be operational in 2009.

ABG is looking at a number of options including setting up a third shipyard, further expand Dahej or acquire another shipbuilding yard. The Surat yard builds ships of up to 150 metres long while the Dahej yard will be able to build ships up to 400 metres long.

The order book of ABG, the country’s largest private-sector shipyard that went public late last year, stood at 22 billion rupees to be executed by 2009. This was more than a 30% increase over the last year’s order position and the yard expects brisk demand in the replacement market.