Indonesia aims to expand its shipbuilding capacity

Local sources in Indonesia report that the country plans to team up with Chinese investors in building a shipyard industry in 2010 with initial feasibility study starting this year.

I Nyoman Sudiana, director of Shipyard industry, Indonesia Offshore Industry and Shipping Association (Iperindo) said that the would-be established joint shipyard industry would use raw materials from Indonesia. The plan to set up the joint shipyard industry resulted from Indonesian delegation’s visit to China last month.

According to Iperindo’s analyses, Indonesian shipyard industry needs an additional investment of 28.5 trillion rupiah (about $2.85billion) to increase its production capacity up to 2.5 million gross tons (GT) in the next five years.

Citing the initial study carried out by Iperindo and the Industrial ministry, to cope with domestic needs Indonesian shipyard industry needs to improve production capacity by 500,000 GT with total investment of 5.7 trillion rupiah ($573.8 million) a year. Currently, the national capacity for construction of new ships is 225,000 GT.