Boat-building to muster $ 116 m by '15

Indunil HEWAGE

Sri Lanka is planning to increase its total export earnings of the local boat building industry to $ 116 million by 2015. The tourist boom in Sri Lanka, particularly in the North and East has opened up huge business opportunities for local manufacturers and the demand for pleasure and sail boats as well as boats for sea excursions on whale watching, leisure fishing, snorkeling and scuba diving is expected to further increase in the coming years.

With the expansion of Colombo, Galle, Kankasanthurai ports, establishment of a new port at Hambantota, more vessels will be coming creating more business opportunities in Sri Lanka.

The increase in fishing, industrial port related activities, commercial and leisure purposes open up huge opportunities and new markets for the boat building industry, Sri Lanka Export Development Board sources said.

Plans have also been put in place to attract more investments to develop the boat industry by utilizing more lands with sea frontage, reducing the high cost of raw materials and transaction cost, the rationalization of import tariff structures and simplifying procedures.

Currently, Sri Lanka manufactures boats for leisure, adventure, sports, cruising, speeding, sailing, fishing.

Major export markets for local boats include the Middle East, Seychelles, Mauritius, Maldives, Madagascar, Bangladesh and Pakistan. In addition, the centre for manufacturing boats is now moving towards developing countries mainly due to low labour cost and the trainable workforce offered by these countries.

Neil Fernando and Co (Pvt) Ltd Director Administration Kapila Sumanapala told Daily News Business that the company had not got any orders from European markets for locally manufactured boats during the first seven months of this year due to the global recession. However, the industry will return to normalcy once the European and African markets recover again.

“If we want to launch a boat for trial purposes, there is no proper facility, especially no space is allocated for us to carry out the required trials and launching facilities are far from satisfactory level in Sri Lanka. Lack of charter ships, berthing facilities, marine water ponds, high tax rates were some of the issues faced by local boat manufactures of the country.

The local boat manufacturing industry needs to be supported and developed as a globally competitive sector and the government needs to take swift measures to impose new rules and regulations to eliminate the existing hurdles that hamper the growth of the industry.

Most of the boat manufacturers in the country are capable of developing boats with international standards; however, some elements are engaged in importing second hand, dilapidated boats on zero duty,” Sumanapala said.