Adani seeking foreign partners

The Adani Group in India is in an advanced stage of negotiations with at least three international shipbuilding companies, two in South Korea and one in Japan, to forge a strategic partnership for its $220 million shipbuilding project in Mundra. Industry reports suggest that Adani is talking to Korean shipbuilders Daewoo and STX as well as Tsuneishi of Japan.

“We are talking to these international companies. But we are yet to finalise a tie-up,” a senior company executive said. While STX has the capacity to build 30,000-80,000 DWT vessels such as chemical tankers, container ships and LPG carriers, Daewoo has experience in building submarines in addition to most commercial vessel types. The shipbuilding group of Tsuneishi has three companies; one each for ship repair, metal processing and ship construction and repair. Adani is also considering a ship repair facility at this yard.

Sources said that Adani, which is also the key promoters of the greenfield Dholera port project along with JK Group, may also use this strategic alliance to transfer some of the shipbuilding and ship repair activity to Dholera in the long run. Potential for shipbuilding is huge near Dholera as there is a fairly long waterfront, a part of which can be converted into dry docks, they said.

Adani is also the developers and operators of the all-weather Mundra port. The tie-up with a strategic partner will mean the entry of second international shipbuilding company in Gujarat, which is projecting itself as Asia?s future shipbuilding and ship repair hub.

Recently, IL&FS and Nikhil Gandhi?s Sea King Infrastructure, who are the promoters of India?s first private port at Pipavav, had tied up with Singapore government?s SembCorp for its $1 billion shipyard project. This shipbuilding yard will have an initial capacity to build 12 Panamax ships yearly.