Mumbai, Nov 4: India, which targets a top-10 finish by 2030 in the global shipbuilding sector, must drastically scale up its maritime manufacturing, a report says, highlighting that it needs an 11-fold production boost just to match the output of the world's fifth-largest shipbuilding nation, Vietnam, The Hindu BusinessLine reported on Wednesday. The report, titled 'Optimising India's shipbuilding and ship repair capacity: Roadmap for industrial scale-up', was prepared jointly by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and global consulting firm EY and released earlier this week during a shipping conference in the financial capital.

Source: The Hindu BusinessLine

According to the report, India accounted for just 0.075 per cent of global merchant-ship deliveries in 2025. Indian shipyards delivered vessels totalling 57,637 gross tonnes (GT) during the year, against 77.28 million GT globally, while Vietnam alone produced more than 15 times India's output and recent data ranks Vietnam as the fifth largest shipbuilding nation globally. Manufacturing Today India, reporting the same FICCI-EY report, added that India ranked 15th among individual shipbuilding economies and that a stronger domestic manufacturing base, reliable component suppliers, production engineering capabilities and skilled workers will be essential to improving output.

Source: Manufacturing Today India

The report noted that while the Rs 69,725-crore maritime package approved by the Union Cabinet in September last year has established a policy and financing framework for expansion, the immediate challenge is to translate this support into firm orders, productive shipyards, qualified domestic suppliers and competitive delivery performance. India's share of global shipbuilding output has remained below 0.12 per cent every year since 2020, and the Maritime Amrit Kaal Vision 2047 targets a top-10 global position by 2030 and a top-five position by 2047.

Source: The Hindu BusinessLine

Among its recommendations, the report called for developing shipbuilding and ship repair simultaneously through integrated industrial clusters, with financial support increasingly linked to contracted orders, capacity utilisation, delivery performance and realised domestic content. It also recommended a 10-year vessel pipeline covering public and strategic requirements, standard reference designs for frequently procured vessels, long-tenure construction finance and refund-guarantee support, and demand-side financing through the Maritime Development Fund. The cluster programme is the principal instrument for new capacity: the Shipbuilding Development Scheme provides Rs 9,930 crore for common infrastructure, and five greenfield clusters — at Thoothukudi, Dugarajapatnam, Kuchhadi, Kendrapara and Dighi — had received in-principle approval by August this year, the report said.

Source: The Hindu BusinessLine

The report also pointed to the demand waiting at home and the repair opportunity offshore. As of December 2025, 1,071 vessels in the Indian fleet were 16 years old or more, pointing to a significant fleet-renewal opportunity, alongside coastal shipping, port services and inland waterways, where cargo movement reached a record 145.5 million tonnes in FY2024-25. Between 7 and 9 per cent of global maritime traffic passes within 300 nautical miles of India's coastline, yet the country accounted for less than 1 per cent of the global ship-repair market in 2024; India repaired 418 vessels in FY2023-24 across some 42 dry docks. A Rs 1,570-crore repair facility approved at Vadinar in May 2026 is expected to handle about 34 large vessels a year, and in ship recycling India accounted for 35.4 per cent of global tonnage in 2025, the report said.

Source: The Hindu BusinessLine

Sources: The Hindu BusinessLine and Manufacturing Today India, both reporting the FICCI-EY report 'Optimising India's shipbuilding and ship repair capacity: Roadmap for industrial scale-up' on November 4, 2026.