The area comprises Oman, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Myanmar. Thereof Sri Lanka is strategically best located with just a short deviation from the direct route between the Malacca Strait and the Suez Canal. Colombo Dockyards is capable to taking vessels of up to 125,000 dwt into drydock.
Also South Indian state owned Cochin Shipyard is conveniently located. This shipyard has also set up a dry docking base at Mumbai Port. But drydocking facilities for ship repairs in India are generally far from adequate as compared to newbuilding capacities. Hence, the country's ship repair industry is no match for the global competition. Certain policy measures have been undertaken by the government towards ship repairs, however, it is a long road for the industry to be internationally competitive in this segment. Among the areas where India loses the battle to bag global ship repair order is lack of availability of spares within the country as most of the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) are foreign-based. Other reasons for the global players not finding Indian peninsula attractive for repairs are time delays and cost overruns. On the other side most of the sub-contractors in Dubai and Singapore are from India. There is a huge Indian diaspora of workers, supervisors and managers currently employed outside and are willing to return. The challenge is for the Indian industry to attract them.
Since 2013 Oman Drydock Company (ODC) as the first ship repair company in Oman is under operation. It has been working exclusively with DSME (Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co.,Ltd.) to develop its world-class drydock and yard complex at Duqm Port; primarily for the overhaul and conversion of large commercial vessels. The complex has the capacity to handle vessels of all sizes, including VLCCs of up to 600,000 dwt.
