Cochin Shipyard Ltd (CSL) is the largest shipbuilding and maintenance facility in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. Cochin Shipyard is part of a line of maritime-related facilities in the port-city of

Kochi Kochi ( , ), List of renamed Indian cities and states#Kerala, formerly known as Cochin ( ), is a major port city along the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea. It is part of the Ernakulam district, district of Ernakulam in the ...

, in the

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

, India. The shipyard builds platform supply vessels and double-hulled oil tankers. It has built big vessels up to 1,20,000

deadweight tonnage Deadweight tonnage (also known as deadweight; abbreviated to DWT, D.W.T., d.w.t., or dwt) or tons deadweight (DWT) is a measure of how much weight a ship can carry. It is the sum of the weights of cargo, fuel, fresh water Fresh water or ...

(DWT) capacity, making it the leading shipyard in India in terms of capacity. The company has Miniratna status.

History

Cochin Shipyard was incorporated in 1972 as a

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

company, with the first phase of facilities coming online in 1982. In August 2012, the Government of India announced plans of

divestment In finance and economics, divestment or divestiture is the reduction of some kind of asset for financial, ethical, or political objectives or sale of an existing business by a firm. A divestment is the opposite of an investment. Divestiture is a ...

to raise capital of ₹1,500

crore Crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes the quantity ten million (107) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. In many international contexts, the decimal quantity is formatted as 10,000,000, but when used in the context of the India ...

for further expansion through an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

(IPO) towards the end of the fiscal year. The Government finalised the decision of stake sale on 18 November 2015. 3.39 crore (33.9 million) shares were planned to be sold, out of which the government held 1,13,000 shares while the others were fresh equity. However, this did not materialise until August 2017, when the company conducted its IPO and listed its shares on the BSE and NSE.

Activities

The yard has facilities to build vessels up to 1,10,000

(DWT) and repair vessels up to 1,25,000 DWT.

Shipbuilding

The first ship to roll out of the Cochin Shipyard was the MV ''Rani Padmini'' in 1981. The yard has delivered two of India's largest double- hull

Aframax An Aframax vessel is an oil tanker with a deadweight between 80,000 and 120,000 metric tonnes. The term is based on the Average Freight Rate Assessment (AFRA), a tanker rate system created in 1954 by Shell Oil to standardize shipping contract ...

tankers, each of , including ''Maharshi Parashuram'' and ''Abul Kalam Azad''. CSL has secured shipbuilding orders from internationally renowned companies from

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

and

West Asia West Asia (also called Western Asia or Southwest Asia) is the westernmost region of Asia. As defined by most academics, UN bodies and other institutions, the subregion consists of Anatolia, the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Mesopotamia, the Armenian ...

. The shipyard is building six bulk carriers for Clipper Group of the

Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of its population. ...

and the first three vessels have been launched. Eight

platform supply vessel A platform supply vessel (PSV) is a ship specially designed to supply offshore oil platform, oil and gas platforms and other offshore installations. They typically range from in length and are distinguished by the large open deck area used to st ...

s for the Norwegian Seatankers Management Company, are also under construction.. On December 27 2024, Adani Ports and SEZ, through its subsidiary, Ocean Sparkle Limited, ordered eight tug boats from CSL. The order is worth about ₹450 crores comprisng eight 70 T Bollard Pull Azimuthing Stern Drive Tugs delivered by Udupi Cochin Shipyard Limited. Deliveries will start in December 2026 and are expected to be completed by August 2028.

Naval Ships

INS ''Vikrant''

Cochin Shipyard built India's first indigenous

aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and hangar facilities for supporting, arming, deploying and recovering carrier-based aircraft, shipborne aircraft. Typically it is the ...

. (formerly, the Project 71 "Air Defence Ship"). The carrier is the largest warship built by CSL. In February 2020, all major structural and outfitting work was declared complete. Sea trials finally began on 4 August. Five day long sea trials were successfully completed on 8 August 2021. The ship was commissioned on 2 September 2022.

Mahe-class
Corvette A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the sloo ...

CSL and

GRSE Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd, abbreviated as GRSE, is one of India's leading Defense industry, defence shipyards, located in Kolkata. It builds and repairs merchant shipping, commercial and warship, naval vessels. GRSE also expor ...

are building the ships of the ASW-SWC class for the

Indian Navy The Indian Navy (IN) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the Navy, maritime and Amphibious warfare, amphibious branch of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Navy. The Chief of the Naval Staff (India), Chief ...

. The ships built at

by CSL are called Mahe class and those built by GRSE are called Arnala Class.On 30 April 2019, the MoD and CSL signed the contract, valued at ₹6,311 crore for the construction of eight ships within a deadline of 84 monthsOn 1 December 2020, CSL initiated the project's construction, with the steel-cutting of the first ASW-SWC vessel, ''Mahe.''

Aadesh-class Fast Patrol Vessel

CSL has built 20 FPVs for the

Indian Coast Guard The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) is a maritime law enforcement and search and rescue agency of India with jurisdiction over its territorial waters including its contiguous zone and Exclusive economic zone of India, exclusive economic zone. It was st ...

.The ships have been designed by M/s Smart Engineering & Design Solutions (SEDS) in Kochi.

Ship repair

The shipyard started offering repair services in 1982 and has undertaken upgrades and repairs for all types of ships, including ships for the oil exploration industry, as well as scheduled maintenance and life extension for ships of the

, the

Union territory Among the states and union territories of India, a Union Territory (UT) is a region that is directly governed by the Government of India, central government of India, as opposed to the states, which have their own State governments of India, s ...

Lakshadweep Lakshadweep () is a union territory of India. It is an archipelago of 36 islands divided into three island subgroups: the Amindivi Islands in the north, the Laccadive Islands (separated from Amindivi roughly by the 11th parallel north), and th ...

, Fisheries and Cochin Port Trust, SCI and the

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) is an Indian central public sector undertaking which is the largest government-owned oil and gas explorer and producer in the country. It accounts for around 70 percent of India's domestic pro ...

(ONGC). It has performed major overhauls for the aircraft carrier INS ''Viraat''. It performed major overhauls for the aircraft carrier INS ''Vikramaditya'' in 2016 and 2024. Recently CSL was awarded major maintenance and upgrade orders from ONGC. This included major overhaul of three rigs, the mobile offshore drilling unit (MODU) ''Sagar Vijay'', mobile offshore drilling unit ''Sagar Bhushan'' and jackup rig ''Sagar Kiran''. On 5 April 2024, CSL became the third Indian shipyard after Kattupalli Shipyard of Larsen & Toubro and Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders to sign a Master Ship Repair Agreement (MSRA) with the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

for repair of its

Military Sealift Command The Military Sealift Command (MSC) is an organization that controls the replenishment and military transport ships of the United States Navy. Military Sealift Command has the responsibility for providing sealift and ocean transportation for all U ...

Fleet Support Ships. The ships operated by MSC are non-commissioned US Navy “support vessels” with civilian crews bearing the prefix “ USNS”. Under the agreement, the US Naval ships of the Central Command that are in voyage are to be repaired in India.

Others

The shipyard also trains graduate engineers in

marine engineering Marine engineering is the engineering of boats, ships, submarines, and any other marine vessel. Here it is also taken to include the engineering of other ocean systems and structures – referred to in certain academic and professional circ ...

. Around one hundred students are trained each year.

References

External links

* {{authority control Shipbuilding companies of India Shipyards of India Companies based in Kochi Ports and harbours of Kerala Government-owned companies of India Transport in Kochi 1972 establishments in Kerala Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1972 Companies listed on the National Stock Exchange of India Companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange