India’s biggest shipbuilder Pipavav Shipyard will spring back to life after a new management led by Swan Energy Ltd took control of the company under the bankruptcy law, with the dry docking of an Indian Coast Guard ship this month and is in “advanced talks” with a global fleet owner for building large size green bulk carriers worth a few hundred million dollars, according to The Economic Times Business Verticals.
Hazel Infra Ltd, the special purpose vehicle 74 percent owned by Swan Energy Ltd and 26 percent by Hazel Mercantile Ltd, that acquired the bankrupt shipyard, has hired German national Carsten Schumacher as the yard’s Chief Operations Officer (COO). Carsten is a former executive at Damen Shipyards Group based in the Netherlands.
Established in 1997, Pipavav Shipyard is the only shipyard in India selected by the US Navy to carry out repairs, maintenance and servicing of US 7th Fleet ships eligible for deployment in the Indian Ocean. Russia’s United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) was the only significant contender among the five bidders who submitted initial offers for the shipyard. The shipyard had been working with Russian companies on several shipbuilding projects and the development of the “Patrol Boat Design”.
Indian conglomerate Reliance Group took control of the shipyard after a debt restructuring in 2016. Hazel Infra quoted some Rs2,100 crores to buy Reliance Naval and Engineering Ltd (RNAVAL) under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). In 2019, RNAVAL collapsed due to debt and the Pipavav shipyard ceased operations.
Creditor banks initiated bankruptcy proceedings to recover about $1.2 billion in debt, while the Indian Navy canceled orders for its range of patrol vessels. The shipyard has been put up for auction since the end of 2020, but the auction period has been extended due to the impact of the New Crown Pneumonia outbreak.
The new management is undertaking a wide range of rehabilitation activities to bring the shipyard back into operation as soon as possible.“The dredging work to remove the silt in the channel has reached the stage where the yard can open the dry dock gate,” said a person with knowledge of the matter. “Hopefully, the yard should be able to get into shipbuilding soon. The company is trying to sign a new building contract with a large customer within this calendar year or beginning of next year,” he added.
Pipavav shipyard has a dry dock measuring 662 metres X 65 metres (of which 295 meters is dedicated for ship repair) with a 600-tonnes SWL goliath crane, making it the largest in India and one of the world’s biggest.
The yard has a modern fabrication, piping, painting shops of 12,000 tons per month capacity. The dry dock and surrounding facilities are located on 104 hectares (257 acres) of land adjoined by a dedicated waterfront in addition to the fabrication facility spread over 138 hectares. The dry dock site has the status of an Export Oriented Unit (EOU).
Adjacent to the dry dock is a pre-erection berth 980 meters long and 40 meters wide that is fully reinforced to enable mega blocks to be assembled on the land berth before being lowered into the dry dock.
To facilitate afloat fit-out and commissioning of ships, including afloat repairs, a 350 meter long, dual berthing quay has been constructed with adequate draft and serviced by a Level Luffing crane.To support ship repair activities, the yard has an outfitting jetty equipped with modern facilities, a large-scale steel fabrication yard with a capacity of 12,000 metric tonnes per month.