Ship Building

May 02, 2008 (LBO) – Colombo Dockyard, Sri Lanka's sole listed ship builder, said it plans to invest 473 million rupees this year to upgrade yard infrastructure to meet growing demand for ship building and repair work. The yard, a subsidiary of Japan's Onomichi Dockyard Co., which provides management. and technical expertise, anticipates it will be get more business with India's trade boom and expansion of its fleet as well as the growth of offshore oil exploration and drilling.

The yard's net profit for the 2007 financial year shot up 77 percent to 1.1 billion rupees owing to a steady supply of orders for new buildings and repair work.

It has set itself a sales revenue target exceeding 10 billion rupees by 2010 with profit expected to b seven percent of revenue.

"To achieve this target, we will infuse a capital investment of 473 million rupees, which will in turn improve the steel work production capacity by end-2008," Dockyard chairman Shinichi Tatebe said.

"We also aim to make a considerable investment towards improving the facilities within our yard," he told shareholders in the firm's annual report.

The yard has a full order book and even repairs are now booked well in advance b