The Cochin Shipyard is learnt to have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Korean firm Samsung Heavy Industries for technology partnership in constructing liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrying vessels.
The MoU, which was inked after protracted negotiations will enable the city-based public sector yard to respond to a tender for LNG carrier construction soon-to-be-re-issued by GAIL (India). An earlier tender issued by GAIL (India) in this regard was cancelled in February this year after it failed to elicit any response. While Cochin Shipyard officials remained tight-lipped on the MoU, sources in the shipping sector privy to development, said it demonstrated a diplomatic victory as External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had campaigned for the collaboration during her visit to South Korea in December last.
As earlier reported by The Hindu , GAIL (India) wanted to acquire nine LNG carriers, but demanded that three be built within the country on a partnership The clause, which mandated the builder of the first six to collaborate with a local yard for construction of the remaining three, was thought to have dissuaded global firms from entering the fray. While Korean and Japanese firms dominate LNG carrier construction globally, they were loath to any collaboration that would have them forfeit their ‘monopoly’ in the sector.
Besides building the first indigenous aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant for the Navy, the yard was in the final leg of construction of 20 fast patrol vessels contracted by the Coast Guard. The yard’s only other major order would be delivered on Friday, when m.v. Indira Point, a buoy tender vessel built for the Directorate of Light Houses and Light Ships would be dedicated to the nation by Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari.
