Visakhapatnam-based HSL earns Rs 20 crore profit, bags Rs 20,000 crore of orders
Visakhapatnam: The ailing defence-controlled shipyard, Vizag-based Hindustan Shipyard Ltd (HSL), for the first time after 1981, registered a profit of substantial amount in 2016, the platinum jubilee year.
HSL completes 75 years of existence on June 21, this year. The shipyard had been continuously sick for almost 30 years. At present, HSL has an order book of Rs 1,200 crore for the next two years.
Also the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has placed Rs 20,000 crore worth orders on nomination to HSL. The MoD had placed orders for five fleet support bessels (FSV), two landing platform docks (LPD) and two mini-submarines for the Indian Navy.
The contract for these new orders are expected to be signed with the MoD and begin work by the end of 2017 or early 2018.
During 2015-16, the HSL registered a turnover of Rs 650 crore and an unaudited profit after tax of Rs 20 crore. The MoD controlled yard had also set its sights on increasing turnover and also profit in the coming years.
"For a shipyard that has been labelled sick since several years, Rs 20 crore of profit is a remarkable achievement. From 1981 onwards, it was only for four times that HSL registered profit, that too less than Rs 2 crore. We hope to continue making profit. We could achieve the profit by bringing down the establishment costs and also production. The man hours per a particular task had come down from 350 hours to 250 hours. The employee cost per work has been brought down to 20 per cent which was earlier 50 per cent. The production per person has increased to Rs 32 lakh from Rs 12 lakh," said HSL CMD, Rear Admiral (Retired) L.V. Sarath Babu.
The HSL which is looking at transforming itself from the classical shipbuilding to integrated shipbuilding had either launched, built, refitted or delivered nine ships in a record time of last seven months.
To innovate and improve its technology to take up better assignments, the HSL had signed an MoU with Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) of South Korea which is the world's first shipbuilding industry.
HSL will use the expertise of HHI to build FSVs, LPDs and submarines through the Transfer of Technology (ToT) from the Korean giant.
Mr Sarath Babu attributed the delay in refit of INS Sindhukeerthi, Indian Navy's second Sindhughosh-class submarine, to external forces beyond the control of HSL. He maintained that HSL refitted Sindhukeerthi within 5.5 years which is best for a shipyard doing such a job for the first time.
"Our workers did a good job on Sindhukeerthi. All the dives were successful in the initial trials itself. We are expecting another partial refit of INS Sindhuveer, another submarine of the Navy by January 2017,” he added.
