There had been a boom in shipbuilding industry across the world up to 2007. Demand for new orders had spiraled because of following reasons:

• New Regulations imposed by IMO made it almost impossible to have the older ships upgraded and thus had to be replaced by new ships.

• Increasing price of fuel had made shipping business extremely competitive and older energy inefficient ships were found obsolete.

• Globalization led to increase the international shipping trade between the East and West several folds. The expansion of European Union also helped the market to be expanded further.

• Countries become global villages. Now any industry or investors can continue his business anywhere and anytime in the entire world. Goods will be manufactured in one side of the world and sold to consumers on the other side. So, the world turnover and activities have been increased manifold in the last few years. As a result, demands of ship and shipbuilding activities have been increased.

 

By depending on unique nature, convenient geographical advantage together with availability of less expensive technical personnel, abundant of skilled and semi-skilled workforce and long past heritage, the shipbuilding industry of Bangladesh has started its journey towards export. This industry is manufacturing cargo vessel, passenger craft, combine carrier, Ro-Ro ferries, tug, fishing trawlers and tankers etc. for inland and coastal routes catering to the local demand. Bangladesh has also successfully exported few ocean-going ships to foreign countries. Bangladesh is known as ship breaking country, because approximately 40-50% of worlds scraped ships are being processed in Bhatiary and Shitakund at Chittagong coast of Bay of Bangle. But due to the revolutionary trend in the world shipbuilding sectors, the prospect of Bangladeshi shipbuilding has also come into discussion. Being a maritime country, Bangladesh has got many rivers and channels connected with sea. On the other hand, the people of this area have the pride on shipbuilding industry since the early stage of its civilizations. So the country has got good potential in respect of rising trend of shipbuilding industry.

 

Interviews of shipyard owners, ship builders, foreign buyers, stake holders and related personnel were conducted to gather their ideas on Bangladeshi shipbuilding industries. These were then evaluated to find the prospect of Bangladeshi shipbuilding. Chairman of Ananda Shipyard and Slipways Ltd viewed ship building as the second largest exporter after garments in 2015. Managing Director of Western Marine Shipyard Ltd was optimistic that Bangladesh would be able to grab one per cent of the global order for small ships in coming years and it will fetch $4.0 billion for Bangladeshi shipbuilding industries. One of the former heads of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering Department of BUET stated 2007-08 was an epoch-making year for the country's shipbuilding industry. Shipbuilding experts expressed that the country had become a new destination for companies seeking construction of small ocean-going vessels because the traditional shipbuilding nations like South Korea and China focused on building large ships. Even Vietnam, which is relatively new in shipbuilding, is no longer interested to build small ships below 25,000 DWT. They want to build bigger vessels because it is relatively cheaper and requires less labour per DWT.

 

Their unwillingness has made India, Bangladesh,Indonesia, Pakistan, Myanmar, Thailand, Brazil etc the new destinations for small shipbuilding. Shipbuilding experts acknowledge, it is only a matter of time that Bangladesh emerges as a major hub for building small ocean-going ships. Classification society, Germanischer Lloyd (GL), confirmed that Bangladesh always had enough skilled and cheap workforces. Now the nation needs know-how and facilities. They also foresee the local shipbuilding as a billion-dollar industry in next five years and it can easily be a global leader in the smallship building industry. Germanischer Lloyd has prompted Ananda Shipyard and Slipways Ltd and Western Marine Shipyard Ltd to look for international order. At GL's insistence, four more shipyards, High-speed Shipyard at Narayanganj, Karnaphuli Shipyard at Chittagong, KSY at Khulna and DEW at Narayanganj, have started upgrading their infrastructure to build seafaring ships. These four companies have ready-made manpower and the skill to build ships. They built hundreds of passenger ferries (locally called launches), coasters and tankers for local market. With some technological help and upgraded infrastructure, they will soon be able to build ocean going ships. Shipyard owners hope that the industry even has the potential to supersede the country's garments sector, the highest export earner, in the long run.

 

The success of these local shipyards has encouraged other local companies such as Meghna Group of Industries, Rangs Group, Khan Brothers etc to jump on the bandwagon of global shipbuilding market. It took us 25 years to earn US$ 10 billion a year in the garments sector. The Bangladeshi shipbuilding can do it in less than 10 years. The European Commission (EC) has shown keen interest to provide support to the shipbuilding companies in Bangladesh to gain a strong foothold in global shipbuilding market. The head of the delegation of European Commission (EC) in Bangladesh (on June 1, 2008) stated that Bangladeshi shipbuilding industry had all potential to earn billions and to bring benefits both to the people of Bangladesh and the European Union. It is particularly appropriated that a country, which has become renowned for ship-breaking, should move into shipbuilding, creating an industrial 'cycle of life' with a certain poetic appeal.