Article Posted on : - Sep 26, 2016

MUMBAI S (PTI): L&T Shipbuilding, part of the USD 16-billion engineering conglomerate Larsen & Toubro (L&T), is eyeing around Rs 9,000 crore orders over the next three years, mostly from the Navy.

L&T diversified into shipbuilding earlier this decade and is yet to make money in the segment.

The company, which has two facilities -- at Kattupalli near Chennai and Hazira in Gujarat -- is also expecting revenues to the tune of Rs 3,000 crore over the next three years, L&T Shipbuilding Managing Director and Chief Executive B Kannan told PTI.

"There was a slowdown in the shipbuilding industry for quite some time both in the commercial as well as defence sectors.

"But with the government now opening the defence sector to private players, we see a huge opportunity and expect to bag a sizeable amount of orders to be awarded by the Navy in the coming years," he said.

The company is expecting to bag at least Rs 9,000 crore worth of orders over the next three years, he said, adding the government's focus on improving national security and ring-fence the Indian Ocean Region will drive growth in the sector.

"While bids for some contracts are already prepared, some may be finalised in the coming months. Some of these orders were the ones which were to be handed out between 2013 and 2015 but have been delayed and have now started moving. We expect there will be momentum from next year and some more ship orders will be coming in," Kannan said.

"Currently very few orders are being given to the private sector. We hope over time, there would be level playing field between the public and private sector and the latter would be given more orders. It's only time before private sector shipyards demonstrate their capabilities in a very strong manner," Kannan said.

The company is also expecting to bag one contract to develop amphibious assault ships, also called landing platform docks (LPD).

The defence ministry has issued an RFP for developing four such LPDs, out of which two will be developed by private sector shipyards while the remaining will be produced by Hindustan Shipyard.