Dockyard to capture new markets
To meet challenge from regional competitors:
Sanjeevi JAYASURIYA
Sri Lanka has not fully recovered to its full potential at the
operational level in the shipping industry.
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Ship
repairs at the Colombo Dockyard |
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Mangala
Yapa |
The country needs to address this as it is a serious concern for
industrialists, Colombo Dockyard Managing Director and CEO Mangala P B
Yapa told Daily News Business.
The time is not right for ship repairs and ship builders as shipping
companies are looking at cheap yards in countries such as Malaysia and
Indonesia.
“This is the reality of business,” he said.
The year 2010 was one of the most challenging years for Colombo
Dockyard PLC (CDL). The company carried out 152 ship repairs in 2010
compared to 148 in 2009.
The CDL has adopted a two fold strategy to face the challenging
situation. One is the internal focus to raise standards to increase the
level of efficiency in all aspects.
This will enable to compete aggressively whilst offering an improved
value proposition to customers. The other strategy is to build a strong
relationship with customers.
CDL is looking at new markets which it has not been able to attract
in the past.
“We consider Far East as a potential market. We have already
attracted three customers from Greek ship owners for the last two months
for dry dock and repairs. We will continue being market-oriented.
“We have been mainly focusing on petroleum tankers especially from
India where there is a change in fleet composition.
The LPG and other chemical tankers are an opportunity at present.
With improved safety and quality standards we could attract this type of
business,” he said.
The first LPG tanker will arrive in mid January 2011.
Company had a successful marketing launch in Singapore under the
theme Ayubowan Singapore to attract ship owners. Though there is a drop
in revenue in the ship repair business this year compared to last year,
CDL is confident that it could turnaround and have better performance in
2011. The ship building business recorded one of the most successful
years in 2010.
CDL was able to deliver five vessels this year. The total contract
value was US $ 115 million.
It was able to secure three more large ship building contracts from
Singapore.
It is yet to deliver four vessels from previous stock one vessel to
India, two to Singapore and one to Sri Lanka.
The company directs excess resources for ship building when necessary
adding more product portfolio.
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