Financial Times

Dockyard expands capacity as it chases overseas orders
Colombo Dockyard Ltd. plans to modify one of its dry docks as part of a plan to make better use of its facilities and expand production as the yard breaks into foreign markets with new building orders.

“We’re expanding dock number 2,” declared CDL managing director Mangala Yapa. “Our advent into the international market created the requirement to improve dock utilization and expand our production capacity.”

The development would allow CDL to build larger tugs as well as do more new building work. The yard, a subsidiary of Japan’s Onomichi Dockyard Co, plans to invest Rs 2-300 million on the capacity expansion work.

This includes increasing crane capacity to be able to lift bigger loads as well as introducing computerised cutting equipment for steel and aluminium work which is now done mechanically.

The yard is building four aluminium-hulled crew boats for a Middle Eastern customer and has just won an order for three tug boats from another Middle Eastern customer.

The latest order represents CDL’s its first overseas order for harbour tugs, the yard already having built some 30 tugs of varying sizes for the Sri Lanka Ports Authority.

Yapa said the new order meant the yard has been able to leverage its track record in building tugs for the SLPA to win overseas orders. “To sell abroad you must first developm the product and prove yourself on home ground,” he said in an interview. “This order means that the quality of our workmanship is up to international standards.”

CDL is also talking with potential customers in India and the Maldives for orders for passenger ferries and other types of boats.

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