On June 22, India’s state run defense shipbuilder Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) released on its official website that the shipyard has signed a contract for the construction of 4 7,500 dwt multi-purpose cargo vessels with German shipping company Carsten Rehder Schiffsmakler. The order is valued at $54 million, with a single-vessel cost of around $13.5 million, and comes with an option for another 4 7,500 dwt MPP cargo vessels.
The multi-purpose vessel has an overall length of 120 meters, a beam of 17 meters and a maximum draft of 6.75 meters. It can be used to transport bulk, general and project cargo including large wind turbine blades after completion and delivery.
According to reports, GRSE is affiliated with the Indian Ministry of Defense and is known as a builder of vessels and offshore vessels. The official website shows that GRSE dates back to 1884 and now has modern shipbuilding infrastructure, VR labs and other shipbuilding facilities with an annual capacity of 20 vessels. As of March 31, 2023, the shipbuilder has delivered 108 warships.
Currently, a number of Indian shipyards are stepping up their efforts to build merchant ships. India’s Prime Minister Modi has formulated a plan to make India become one of the world’s five major shipbuilding centers in 10 years. However, the global shipbuilding industry is now mainly concentrated in China, South Korea, Japan, Europe and the US etc., India in the global shipbuilding market share accounted for less than 1%.