Dhanusha Marine opens second boat building factory

The second boat building factory of Dhanusha Marine opened 7 July in Kalutara. This is in collaboration with Hyundai En Tech and Hanil Ship Building Company, Korea with a Rs. 300 million-investment.

Dhanusha Marine Managing Director G.S. Fernando said, “Our production target under this project is to manufacture around 100 boats in the first year of operation. We will introduce new technology for fishing boat manufacturing and there will also be new designs for fishing boats under Korean technology.”

Export Development Board Chairperson and CE Indira Malwatte was the Chief Guest of this occasion. The factory hopes to manufacture long boats over 55 feet for Korean, African and other markets. “The studies undertaken to improve export performance have also highlighted the need to establish clear regulations for leisure boating with regard to manufacturing standards, licensing and registration, and that the EDB together with other stakeholders have already commenced work on this. In addition to enhancing foreign exchange, the boat building industry itself offers a wide range of benefits to the country, which also acts as a catalyst to the tourism industry in Sri Lanka. It has generated many job opportunities for the youth and created inflow of technical knowhow into the country,” Malwatte said.

The EDB has identified the boat building industry as a key product sector that could be developed and promoted internationally to achieve the national export targets of the country. Therefore, several local and international promotion activities are being initiating by the EDB to create awareness on the industry such as organising Boat Show Sri Lanka biannually since 2008, advertise in International magazines, organising of industry participation in international conferences and development of an investor prospectus/feasibility study to attract investors for the Boat Building/Marine Tourism in Sri Lanka etc, are few of them.

Dhanusha Marine Lanka Ltd. is a known for manufacturing of fibreglass boats for local and international markets since year 1993. The export operations began in the year 2008, and the manufactured fibreglass boats and other allied products are being sent to Scandinavian, Asian, African and Middle-east countries since then. The main factory is located at Fullerton Estate Kalutara, within the state owned Industrial Park.

With the objective of expanding existing market share by seeking new joint ventures and partnerships globally, Dhanusha Marine Lanka Ltd. has entered into a joint venture agreement with, Hanil Company Ltd. and Hyundai En Tech Inc. in Korea, and incorporated Dhanusha Hyundai Ship Building Co. Ltd. In this factory, Hyundai En Tech and Hanil Ship Building Company are planning to manufacture boats over 55 feet for Korean, African and other markets with the collaboration of their Korean partners.

Sri Lanka has a long maritime heritage and a proud history of boat building having been a destination on the ancient Silk Road travel route. From the ancient times, Sri Lanka was considered as a nation that had mastered the science of boat building and the country was a maritime hub of the ancient world. The island therefore does have a natural advantage to become the hub for boat manufacturing in the Asian region.