Bangladesh wins German contract

28 April 2007

DHAKA - Bangladesh’s main shipbuilder said on Saturday it had won a 100-million-dollar contract to build eight vessels, a deal seen as helping pave the way for the nation to emerge as a major shipbuilder.

Ananda Shipyards Shipways Ltd (ASSL) signed the joint deal with two German companies earlier this month to build eight ships with capacity for 325 containers by June 2010, company chairman Abdullahel Bari told AFP.


“This is the single biggest export order for Bangladesh and it will go a long way to making the country a major world shipbuilding nation,” Bari said. Government officials could not be reached for confirmation on whether it was Bangladesh’s biggest export order as offices were shut for the weekend.


Bangladesh has become a new destination for companies seeking construction of small ocean-going vessels as traditional ship-building nations such as South Korea and China now focus on building large ships.


Schiffahrtskontor Tom Woden GmbH and Co and Ernst Komrowki Holding KG signed the deal with ASSL after inspecting its facilities on the river Meghna and failing to find any shipbuilder willing to construct ships for them in China.

“They’re convinced we can build ships and deliver them on time. We have enough skilled workforce,” said Bari, adding he planned to double his 700-strong workforce to fill the order.

Riverine Bangladesh has been known for its small ferry-making industry since its independence in 1971. Most of the country’s nearly 3,000 ferries were made in the country’s shipyards.

Bangladesh’s more than one dozen shipbuilding yards employ some 20,000 workers but officials say they can ramp up production and manpower quickly.

http://www.suntimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=448644

Very impressive.

Yes it is indeed a welcome change, few years back Bangladesh was only known for scrapping work, that is dismantling old ships for steel and other parts. Today we are becoming a leading shipmaker in the world and countries like Germany, Netherlands and Denmark are coming to us!

Here is another report on this development:
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Bangladesh wins 100 mln dlr ship contract in boost to industry
(AFP)

28 April 2007
DHAKA - Bangladesh’s main shipbuilder said on Saturday it had won a 100-million-dollar contract to build eight vessels, a deal seen as helping pave the way for the nation to emerge as a major shipbuilder.

Shipbuilding officials and local media said the contract was the impoverished South Asian nation’s single biggest export order.

Ananda Shipyards Shipways Ltd (ASSL) signed the joint deal with two German companies earlier this month to build eight ships with capacity for 325 containers by June 2010, company chairman Abdullahel Bari told AFP.
“This is the single biggest export order for Bangladesh and it will go a long way to making the country a major world shipbuilding nation,” Bari said.

Government officials could not be reached for confirmation on whether it was Bangladesh’s biggest export order as offices were shut for the weekend.

Bangladesh has become a new destination for companies seeking construction of small ocean-going vessels as traditional shipbuilding nations such as South Korea and China now focus on building large ships.

Schiffahrtskontor Tom Woden GmbH and Co and Ernst Komrowki Holding KG signed the deal with ASSL after inspecting its facilities on the river Meghna and failing to find any shipbuilder willing to construct ships for them in China.

“They’re convinced we can build ships and deliver them on time. We have enough skilled workforce,” said Bari, adding he planned to double his 700-strong workforce to fill the order.

The company has invested heavily in equipment in the past few years.

With the new deal “we have orders worth 125 million dollars. We will hand over two ships to a Danish company by year-end. We’re also in talks with a Dutch company to build 22 ships for them,” Bari said.

“We’re now swamped with orders,” he said.

Announcement of the deal comes after Western Marine, another shipbuilder in the southeastern port city of Chittagong, last week clinched an 11-million-dollar order to build a tugboat for a Singapore company.

Riverine Bangladesh has been known for its small ferry-making industry since its independence in 1971. Most of the country’s nearly 3,000 ferries were made in the country’s shipyards.

Bangladesh’s more than one dozen shipbuilding yards employ some 20,000 workers but officials say they can ramp up production and manpower quickly.

Expert said it was only a matter of time until Bangladesh emerges as a major hub for building small ocean-going ships.

“The country has always had enough skilled and cheap workforce. Now it has the know-how and facilities,” said C.F. Zaman, Bangladesh head of worldwide ship inspection agency Germischer Lloyd.

“I can easily foresee local shipbuilding emerging as a billion-dollar industry in four to five years’ time. It can easily be a global leader in the small-ship making industry.”

ASSL chief Bari said the industry even had the potential to dwarf the country’s garments sector, the biggest export earner.

“It took us 25 years to earn 10 billion dollars a year in the garments sector. The shipbuilders can do it in less than 10 years,” he said.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle...siness&col=

Awesome stuff!

Very impressive indeed...hope Bangladesh continues.

Mashallah .. good and long term economic goals will allow Bangladesh to reap spillaway effects from Japanese, South Korean & Chinese economies.

It would be great to see Bangladesh do more and more economically.

Good for our Bengladeshi brothers.

This is a very good news as ship building is a huge industry with demand increasing manyfolds every year. Hopefully, Bangladesh would get more and more orders every year. Besides this is such an important and critical asset for defence industry.

Good Job, wish them luck in future.

Great news!

Sallam,

Masha-Allah this is excellent news!!

Its a great news for Bangladesh its high time they get some good news. But proclaiming to becoming a Major Shipbuilding Hub only with one order is too premature. Atleast wait for 2 more years and then you can declare it as a major hub.

I am saying this because there are also many orders with Indian Ship yards by foreign countries. Especially a giant has entered in this industry and had success in short time. Larson & Toubro has secured orders from Indian goverment and Netherlands. Its planning to expand the present shipyard and constructing 2 more shipyards for its furure business.

Its good to have competition.

Listen you hindian turd there is no need to pollute every thread with your bull****, we all know that your pathetic country is the rubbish bin of the world - and we are alot better than u - i have been to india and its the biggest #### hole in the world SO FCK OFF !!!!!!!

pak raptor why don't you shut up so what if he's indian ? he made a perfectly valid point and didn't insult anyone try refuting it in a civil manner if you disagree instead of making horrible racist remarks your projecting a bad name for pakistanis.The only turds who should f*ck off are hateful troublemakers like you.
still this is good news for bangladesh.

FCK YOU - you hindian sympathiser = or hindian - you have to stick that great big whore known as bharat mata into every freaking thread - I know the pain chood was trying to put Bangladesh down by mentioning bharat mofo.

We do not give a flying FCK about one of the most poor countries on the earth - if u are so pleased about mother hindian - try to convince the hundreds of millions sleeping on the streets = i seen that sh"t with my own eyes

Local firm wins $4.25m order to build tug boat for Singapore
Bond system to spur shipyards growth suggested
Rafiq Hassan

A Bangladeshi shipyard has won a $ 4.25 million order to build a powerful tug boat for a Singapore based company, again testifying to the potential of the local ship building industry at a time when Chinese and South Korean yards are losing interest in producing small ocean-going vessels.

A formal agreement, worth around Tk 30 crore, was signed between the Western Marine Shipyard at Chittagong and Maroci Lines Private Limited of Singapore to construct the 4,800 horse power anchor handling tug supply vessel, sources said.

Managing Director of Western Marine Shipyard Sakhawat Hossain signed the agreement during a meeting in Singapore on April 27. The tug will be constructed in one year with the internationally renowned classification society Germanscher Lloyd supervising the construction work.

The same company earlier won an order worth $11 million to construct a 26,000 tonne capacity ship for a buyer in Europe and last month Ananda Shipyards Shipways (ASSL) at Meghnaghat received an export order from German companies of around $100 million for constructing eight ships.

Bangladesh has become a new destination for companies seeking construction of small ocean-going vessels as traditional shipbuilding nationals, such as South Korea and China, are now focusing on bigger ships.


Talking to The Daily Star, Sakhawat Hossain said the ship builders were also looking for new construction places, as South Korea, China and Vietnam have no capacity to take new orders. All the shipyards in those countries are fully booked until 2010, he said.


At least one hundred such orders are waiting now in Singapore, he told The Daily Star saying that only a few orders are arriving in Bangladesh as the country lacks large-scale ship building facilities.

The government's tight export-import policies are also a major barrier for a flourishing shipbuilding industry in the country, he said.

"If the government provides back to back letter of credit facilities to the ship building industries, hundreds of shipyards would be set up in the country within a few years earning billions of dollars of foreign currency," he said.

Steel is the main raw materials for shipbuilding on which the government charges 40 per cent custom duty. As a result, building a ship here becomes costlier, he said.

In order to develop shipyards and provide employment to thousands of workers, the government can provide facilities under a bond system as is being done in the garments sector, Sakhawat said.

http://www.thedailystar.net/2007/05/03/d70503050153.htm

Why the hell are you ranting like a mad dog. What the hell is wrong with the post i have shown the reality. And coming to the "one of the most poor countries on the earth", tell me about your country iam all ears to you. I have been to 4 countries and i haven't heard pakistan connected to anything other than war on terror. Nothing of growth or other stuff. Noone cares you exist. Have you got one company that comes near TATA's, Reliance, Wipro, Infosys, Ashok Leyland, M&M, Larson&tourbo, Satyam, Dr. Reddy's Laboratries, Ranbaxy, and many more. Each and one of them has presence in more countries than you can imagine. They bought the companies in first world countries with billions of dollars. We just don't wait for someone to come and invest. we invest in other places too. We have millions poor so what we have them we will make them half in near future, but we are going forward and striving for it. We just don't looking for aids, Freebees like 'some other countries'.

No insult intended but was tired of abuses hurled against sincere posts.

I was just saying that Bangladesh has long way to go don't say asia's or somewhere else's biggest shipyard / producing country.