Colombo Dockyard takes centre stage at INMEX-SMM Mumbai

From left: Colombo Dockyard Head of Marketing (Ship Repairs) Darshana Chandrasekera, Chief Operating Officer Benny Fernando, and Senior Engineer (Invoicing and Marketing) Amila Rukshan

Sri Lanka’s pioneer shipbuilding and ship repairing facility, Colombo Dockyard PLC, was the sole participant from Sri Lanka participating in one of the leading international shipping exhibitions, INMEX-SMM-2019, held from 3-5 October in Mumbai, India.  

Under the leadership and guidance from Chairman H. Tanaka, Managing Director D.V. Abeysinghe, and Chief Operating Officer Benny Fernando, Colombo Dockyard have taken proactive initiatives to revive the market by spearheading and participating in the marine forums to educate the fraternity of the latest positive developments.  The main drive at this event was to educate the neighbouring Indian shipping fraternity of the latest developments in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The drive to regain the business confidence of the many ship managers, owners and other service providers to look at Sri Lanka seriously for their repair and building requirements. 

Colombo Dockyard has been a regular participant at many marine exhibitions, such as Posidonia, Greece; Norshipping, Oslo; Sea Asia, Singapore; SMM, Germany; and other platforms over the past four decades. This is the second instance Colombo Dockyard has participated as an active exhibitor at the INMEX-SMM Mumbai edition. The shipyard has been flying the Sri Lankan flag and promoting Colombo as a competitive repair and building centre in the South Asian region in Europe and global platforms.

Indian ship owners and managers represent a significant share of the business volumes handled by Colombo Dockyard. Being located in close proximity or next door to the Indian subcontinent, Colombo Dockyard has been recognised as a “home away from home” for the growing Indian fleet for superior repair and shipbuilding facilities. The theme for the INMEX-SMM was “Home away from Home for the Indian Fleet” and was very well received by the Indian shipping fraternity.   

This naturally makes them one of the significant market segments for Colombo Dockyard.  This international marine exhibition has been a meeting place for Indian and global shipping fraternity stakeholders such as machinery and equipment suppliers, classification societies and shipbrokers, to name a few. 

This platform was used to inform the market of the latest shipyard developments offerings, such as the newly formed Rapid Response Afloat repair Service team (RRARS), which can be mobilised swiftly at any Sri Lankan port to attend to multiple types of afloat repairs. The shipyard’s readiness to handle the installation of Ballast Water Management Systems (BWMS) and Scrubbers, which is a requirement as a result of the IMO statutory regulations kicking in on January 1st 2020.    

During this event, some of the other key factors highlighted to the potential clients were: Colombo’s strategic location close to the Indian Subcontinent and main marine trading routes, minimal diversion for vessel’s calling to discharge in the Indian coast, quality repair services, safe working environment, Japanese expertise available through collaboration with Onomichi Dockyard, faster turnaround times and competitive rates. The shipbuilding sector highlighted the wide product portfolio on offer for complex vessels such as the Cable Layer vessels and offshore Vessels Sector, mainly our market-proven Anchor Handling Tugs, Offshore Platform Support Vessels, Crew Boats, Coast Guard Vessels, Harbour Tugs, Work Boats Passenger Ferries and other specialised Vessels.   

The Colombo Dockyard team was led by Chief Operating Officer Benny Fernando, Head of Marketing (Ship Repairs) Darshana Chandrasekera, and Senior Engineer (Invoicing and Marketing) Amila Rukshan.