INDIA's shipbuilding industry is expected to grow 30 per cent a year according to a I-Maritime consultancy study, reported India's Financial Express newspaper.
India's share in the global order book is expected to be 15 per cent by 2020 from current 0.4 per cent, a sharp rise driven by cost competitiveness and increasingly skilled manpower, the report said.
While shipbuilding only contributes 0.1 per cent of India's GDP today, that figure is expected rise to a 1.1 per cent to US$22 billion by 2020.
One industry source told The Financial Express: "In earlier days, the industry was predominated by government shipyards. However, the private sector has started to expand operations."
This is also evident from the share of private players in the overall Indian shipbuilding order book, which stands at 73 per cent of yards today.
Order books, said the consultancy study, still show a reliance on export orders, but increasingly more domestic orders are coming in, adding that a trend to larger ships was also appearing.
"Shipbuilding is totally labour intensive and there is a wealth of skilled labour in India," said a Mumbai-based shipping analyst.
Going forward, a similar trend is expected on the back of a growth in demand for vessels.
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