Japan orders newbuilds from Bangladesh

Highspeed Shipbuilding & Engineering Co (HSEC), a Bangladesh shipbuilder, has won a $50 million order from Japan to build ten small ships. This is further evidence of the country’s booming shipbuilding industry and is the first time the country has won a Japanese contract. The buyer is Japan based Tokyo Freighting Ltd, a shipping company.

“Since the Japanese firm is very conscious about standards and compliance, Tokyo Freighting experts will constantly supervise the overall manufacturing of these ships,” said KM Mahmudur Rahman, managing director of HSEC. Tokyo Freighting will also provide technical support to Highspeed in developing its Narayanganj dockyard, in line with Japanese standards.

Highspeed, which is to invest around $5 million in the coming months to upgrade the manufacturing facility of its dockyard, will deliver the ships by October 2010. Manufacturing of the first four ships will start by December this year and will be delivered to Tokyo Freighting by March next year.

The size of the ships, including dry cargo carriers and oil tankers, will vary from 2,000 to 4,000 dwt and the Japanese ship owner will supply all raw materials and equipment.

Rahman said Japanese manufacturers are currently outsourcing orders for small ships as it is not cost effective now to manufacture them at the huge dockyards in Japan. “It is a great development for the country’s shipbuilding industry as Japan, the most advanced shipbuilding nation in the world, starts building in Bangladesh. It may inspire other advanced shipbuilding nations to come to Bangladesh,” Rahman hoped.

Currently local shipbuilders including Ananda Shipyard and Western Marine Shipyard are working on about $ 400 million worth of orders for over 40 vessels for buyers from Germany, Denmark, Netherlands and Mozambique.

The success of these two companies has encouraged other local companies such as Meghna Group of Industries, Rangs Group, Khan Brothers and Narayanganj Engineering & Shipbuilding to jump on the bandwagon of global shipbuilding market.