India Launches A $10 Billion Plan For Its Tanker Fleet To Increase Shipbuilding

India, the third-largest oil importer in the world, intends to invest 850 billion rupees ($10 billion) to buy 112 crude transporters through 2040 in order to secure its own supply. The shipping and petroleum ministries are working to improve the state-owned oil companies’ aging fleet, which is primarily on charter from international corporations.

Thirty of the 79 ships that will be purchased in the first phase of the plan are medium-range ships. As early as this month, the purchase order for ten tankers should be issued. Only domestically constructed ships shall be offered for sale, even if there is international cooperation. Due to rising local and international demand for oil products, India’s crude oil refining capacity is expected to increase from roughly 250 million tonnes at the present time to 450 million tonnes by the end of the decade, despite the worldwide push for a shift to greener energy sources.

It is essential to have enough shipping capacity of its own to conduct its energy trade in a country that imports the majority of its crude oil demands. By 2030, India hopes to increase the proportion of domestically constructed oil tankers in its fleet from the current 5% to 7%. By 2047, the date the nation has chosen for being a developed nation, the goal is to eventually raise it to 69%.

Email requests for comment were not immediately answered by the government’s Press Information Bureau, the shipping ministry, or the petroleum ministry. This year, the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi established a 250-billion-rupee fund to boost the nation’s maritime industry. One of the fund’s objectives is to gradually increase domestic shipbuilding capabilities and lessen dependency on foreign-built vessels.

According to the people, India also intends to increase its shipping capacity in order to deliver steel, coal, and fertilizer. The plan is to eventually replace the majority of it with ships manufactured in India. Not Having Scale Due to insufficient domestic demand for ships, India’s shipbuilding sector is still in its infancy and lacks scale.

Once international shipbuilding companies come to India and build for the world, economies of scale will follow. With a length of 238 meters and a deadweight tonnage of 93,332 metric tons, the MT Maharshi Parashuram is the largest oil tanker constructed in India. However, it pales in contrast to Oceania, a supertanker owned by Minsheng Financial Leasing in China that is 380 meters long and has a deadweight tonnage of 441,584 metric tonnes.

Indian government is encouraging shipbuilders from South Korea and Japan to construct ships with the promise of incentives, with the goal of providing demand-side stimulus for shipbuilding enterprises. South Korea’s HD Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. and India’s state-owned Cochin Shipyard Ltd. are negotiating the construction of a new facility in Kochi, a coastal city in southwest India. India has also held discussions with Japan’s Nippon Yusen KK, popularly known as NYK Line, and Korean shipbuilders Samsung Heavy Industries Co.