After a four-year hiatus in exports, Western Marine Shipyard, one of the country’s leading shipbuilders, is set to export at least eight ships to a company in the UAE.
This will also mark the first ship exports from Bangladesh after a two-year gap. The last ship export from the country occurred in September 2022.
Company officials say that in 2023, Western Marine entered into a contract with Marwan Shipping of the UAE to build eight ships.
Under the agreement, a 69-metre landing craft named “Rayan” will be exported in January 2025, followed by two tugboats named “Khalid” and “Ghaya” in April 2025. The remaining five ships will be delivered at various times in 2025.
Captain Sohail Hasan, managing director of the company, at a press briefing in the port city yesterday, said they had previously exported a ship to Marwan Shipping in 2017. “Impressed by the success of that shipment, Marwan Shipping has signed a contract for this new project.”
Additionally, Western Marine will deliver two passenger vessels, MV Rupsha and MV Sugandha, to the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) next month.
To date, the company has exported 33 ships to 11 countries, with a total value exceeding $100 million.
The press conference was attended by Western Marine’s Operations Director Captain Fazle Rabbi, GM of Finance Abul Mansur, and Director Captain Anam Chowdhury.
Between 2010 and 2017, it built 50 different types of vessels, including container ships, oil tankers, and tugboats, for domestic clients.
However, the global economic downturn triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic brought the company’s exports to a standstill in 2019.
In 2020, Western Marine exported two bulk carrier vessels. However, it has been unable to secure any major ship export deals in the past four years.
According to the National Board of Revenue (NBR), no ships have been exported from Bangladesh in the past two years. The last ship export took place in September 2022, when Narayanganj-based Ananda Shipyard exported a vessel to Denmark. Since then, no further exports have occurred.
Founded by 15 entrepreneurs, Chattogram-based Western Marine entered the shipbuilding industry in 2000, recognising it as a promising sector for Bangladesh. Over the past two decades, the company has built more than 150 vessels of various types, including cargo vessels, passenger vessels, multi-purpose ice-class vessels, landing crafts, offshore patrol vessels, tugboats, fishing vessels, bulk carriers, and container carriers.
Source: The Business Standard
