Mundra Ahoy! Adani sets sail for shipbuilding
Gautam Adani is looking to start building ships at the group's flagship port at Mundra, also the country's largest, as yards in top nations such as China, South Korea and Japan are booked out until at least 2028, forcing global fleet owners to look at alternate manufacturing sites including India for new vessels.
This fits in with India's ambitious bid to become a top 10 shipbuilder as per the Maritime India Vision 2030 and move into the top five by 2047 as detailed in the Maritime Amrit Kaal Vision. India is currently ranked 20th in the world commercial shipbuilding market with a marginal share of 0.05%. Indian-owned and flagged ships account for about 5% of the total overseas cargo-carrying requirements of the country.
Adani's previously unreported shipbuilding scheme is tucked away in the ₹45,000 crore expansion plan for Mundra Port that received environmental and coastal regulation zone clearance recently, according to the minutes of the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) attached to the ministry of environment, forest and climate change, which approved the proposal May 15.
Industry Slowly Pivoting Towards Green Ships
The group's shipbuilding bet also comes at a time when the global shipping industry is slowly pivoting towards green ships to meet decarbonisation goals with one estimate saying that more than 50,000 vessels have to be built over the next 30 years to replace fleets.
The Adani Group hadn't responded to emailed queries at press time.
India's net potential commercial shipbuilding market up to 2047
