Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with South Korean second-largest shipbuilder, Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) to team up to bid for the GAIL tender to build LNG ships. Cochin Shipyard Chairman and Managing Director Madhu S Nair and Samsung CEO Park Dae-young has signed the MoU during the Maritime India Summit in Mumbai recently.
If Cochin Shipyard-Samsung wins the tender, the consortium is expected to secure orders for three ships, each costs around Rs. 1,500 crore. Under the MoU, Samsung Heavy Industries would receive around Rs. 2,656 crore ($400 million) for collaborating with Cochin Shipyard.
Three of the ships must be built locally and Cochin Shipyard is the only Indian yard to meet GAIL’s criteria. Cochin would supply the manpower and dock, while Samsung would advise on shipbuilding technology and equipment procurement.
All carriers will be operated by the Shipping Corporation of India (SCI).
GAIL has tied up 5.8 million tonnes per annum of LNG from the US which the newly built ships will ferry. South Korea’s largest shipbuilder, Hyundai Heavy Industries, had initially teamed with Indian engineering and construction firm Larsen and Toubro, which later withdrew from the tender.