Chanakya's_Chant
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2013
- Messages
- 3,395
- Reaction score
- 28
- Country
- Location
‘GSL order book has doubled in one year’
The MCMV project, cleared by the present government on February 28, has woken up a sleeping giant, which is now moving forward to roll out this project on time
The MCMV project, cleared by the present government on February 28, has woken up a sleeping giant, which is now moving forward to roll out this project on time
Goa Shipyard Ltd (GSL), a defence PSU, is aiming for annual growth of 15% in the next five years and to become the second largest defence PSU shipyard by 2021. GSL’s chairman & managing director Rear Admiral (Retd) Shekhar Mital, a ship building expert with over 30 years experience, talks to FE’s Huma Siddiqui about the shipyard’s efforts.
Excerpts:
Goa Shipyard has recently been awarded a government contract for 12 minesweepers worth R32,600 crore. Have you identified technology partners for the same?
All the 12 mine counter measures vessels (MCMVs) will be built at GSL, with transfer of technology (TOT) from a foreign collaborator, under the Make in India programme. The final specifications for these vessels are being made by the Indian Navy, based on which GSL will be floating global request for proposal to identify and acquire TOT from a suitable collaborator. GSL is interacting with various international shipyards, including Intermarine of Italy and Kangnam Corporation of South Korea, for obtaining information on various designs and technologies.
What are the major contracts bagged by the yard in 2014-15? What measures have been introduced to improve the yard’s performance?
In 2014-15, GSL signed major export contracts with the Mauritius government for the design, construction and delivery of two water jet fast patrol vessels (FPVs) and 11 fast interceptor boats (FIBs). Further, the ministry of defence/Coast Guard has cleared construction of five offshore patrol vessels (CGOPVs) on a ‘repeat order’ basis. This contract is expected to be concluded by July/August. The committed order book of the shipyard has, consequently, doubled within the last one year to about R4,500 crore.
During last one year various focused hard measures were introduced to increase the company’s efficiency and throughput. Decision-making has been taken to the shop floor/production centres. People have been empowered. Capital procurements for increased productivity, pending for years, have been hastened. The financial restructuring, coupled with the proactive, strategic initiatives in production, planning and supply chain management rolled out during the last one year, enabled us to transform our performance, and achieve a higher turnover with a very healthy bottom line. The debtors’ outstanding amount has been brought down from R140 crore to R80 crore within one year. Adherence to the vessel delivery schedules has enhanced capacity utilisation at the yard.
GSL has emerged as the ‘yard of choice’ for the Coast Guard and the Indian Navy. How did you accomplish this?
Consistent performance in ship deliveries has made GSL the yard of choice for the Navy and the Coast Guard. This is validated in GSL’s nomination for the Navy’s MCMV project and the repeat order for 5O PVs for the Coast Guard.
What makes us the yard of choice is our capability to design in-house and build ships to client specifications, besides the track record of delivering quality ships on time and at fixed cost.
About 50% of GSL’s present order book is from exports. What all has the yard exported?
GSL made efforts to market its in-house designed products overseas through the Indian missions, defence exhibitions and direct interaction with buyers. These have borne fruits and today GSL is executing export orders of over R1,200 crore. These include patrol vessels for Sri Lanka and Mauritius and damage control simulator for Myanmar. All these orders have become effective in the last 15 months. The yard is well-equipped to undertake more export orders. GSL is trying to expand its export market, with its patrol vessels, to Latin American, South East Asian, Middle East and African countries. Some of the navies/ clients from these countries have approached us and efforts are on to finalise the modalities for export to these countries.
Is GSL outsourcing any work to MSMEs?
At present, the reform agenda is being unleashed and spearheaded by ministry of defence directly at the secretary (defence production) level. As a consequence, all of us at GSL are focusing to simplify and modify procedures to encourage indigenisation and widen the vendor base. Engagement of MSMEs is a focus area of the present government. GSL has been proactive in sensing the requirement of MSMEs and other sub-contractors. We strongly feel that in pursuance of ‘Make in India’ policy, we need to involve them more and towards that more efforts are being channelised.
How do you see the company faring in the future?
The MCMV project, cleared by the present government on February 28, has woken up a sleeping giant, which is now moving forward briskly to roll out this project on time, for which a number of pro-active measures on diverse fronts, including development of infrastructure, manpower augmentation, training and technology transfer, are being pursued with urgency. The last one year has seen the introduction of hard, transformative policies, with an insistence on higher accountability and delivery. Policy reforms are being pursued for the sector’s long-term sustainability and to remove bottlenecks. Also, financial restructuring/austerity measures have been introduced, with good results.
With the above measures in place, I am confident that company will report a compounded annual growth of over 15% in the next five years with a corresponding improvement in the bottom line.
Source:- ‘GSL order book has doubled in one year’ | The Financial Express
Great go GSL. You have made us proud every time. Kudos to the management. 
