Chittagong, March 21, 2012: Bangladesh’s leading Shipbuilding Company Western Marine Shipyard Limited has delivered two more ships to German on Wednesday, setting another milestone in the country’s shipbuilding industry.
The delivery is the fourth pair of ice class ships built by the Western Marine for the German buyer Grona Shipping. This project is believed to be the highest in value in Bangladesh shipbuilding industry.
“This is the first time that a Bangladeshi shipyard hands over six ships in a row to a single owner,” said Western Marine Chairman Saiful Islam at the handing over ceremony at Chittagong Boat Club, Patenga.
By exporting the fourth pair of ship, the country will be benefitted with an inflow of large amount of foreign currency, which is needed right now to offset its shortage currently faced by the banks, he said.
The commerce minister G M Quader attended as the chief guest at the delivery function. The EPB vice chairman Subhashish Bose, Dutch Ambassador to Bangladesh Alphons Hennekens, German deputy head of mission Dr. Ralf Reusch, FBCCI president A K Azad and Daily Star editor, Mahfuz Anam were present as special guests.
Managing director of Bank Asia Mehmood Husain and Olaf Mallow from Commerzbank attended the event as financial partners to the shipyard. Ship owner Markku Vedder, shipyard representatives of East Wind Hamburg and classification society Germanischer Lloyd, was also present.
Addressing the program, Sakhawat Hossain, managing director of Western Marine Shipyard, said the vessels which completed sea trial successfully are approved by Germanischer Lloyd.
He said, “We will make our efforts best further in future to perform well by building more quality ships for the entire world. This event has marked another significant achievement for a Bangladeshi shipyard amongst the shipbuilding countries of the world.”
Mr. A K Azad mentioned in his address that this industry is so much potential that it requires proper govt nursing for its continuity in the long run & he desired a cash incentive of 10% on export for the industry. GM Quader mentioned that shipbuilding is an opportune industry & he said the govt will provide all kind of support to it for the betterment nation.
The EMSWATER & EMSFLOW are 5200 DWT MPC ships certified as E3 ice-class vessels which mean it is designed & equipped to sustain in cryogenic weather condition. Around 1500 tonnes of ice-class steel were fabricated by using 60 tonnes of welding electrodes to build each ship while 23 kilometres of marine cables and 24,000 litres of paints were used for her skin protection. For building these ships Bank Asia provided a credit facility of BDT160cr and all the ships were insured by Prime Insurance Co. Ltd.
Western Marine has emerged as a top local ship exporter in recent years, leading to keep major contribution to the national revenue.
Currently, the shipyard holds new building projects worth millions of money. They are building 5 X 4100 DWT ice-class container vessels for Stella Shipping, Denmark; 1 X RORO ferry for a Danish owner.
Numerous ships for port use, fishing trawlers, tankers, cargo carriers for inland and coastal use are in progress. The outstanding shipbuilding by the Western Marine has helped it achieve a global reputation at a very short period, ensuring international contracts and local orders to meet the demand for inland vessels, in both public and private sector.
