India needs 11 times its 2025 merchant ship output to match fifth-ranked shipbuilder

India’s shipyards would have had to deliver about 11 times their 2025 merchant ship tonnage to match the world’s fifth-ranked shipbuilding economy that year, according to a report released at the Maritime India Conference and Expo in Mumbai. The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and EY called for a rolling 10-year vessel procurement plan to give Indian yards enough repeat orders to expand production.

Indian yards delivered 57,637 in gross tonnage (GT) in 2025, or 0.075% of the global total of 77.28 million GT. India ranked 15th, just behind Norway and ahead of Romania. China, South Korea and Japan together accounted for 94.2% of deliveries. The comparison measures the tonnage of merchant ships delivered during the year. Naval construction, a substantial part of the orderbooks at several Indian yards, falls outside that measure.

Where could Indian shipyards find repeat orders?

Fleet renewal offers one source of demand. As of December 2025, India had 1,071 vessels aged 16 years or more. Decisions by their owners on when and where to replace them will help determine how much of that potential work reaches domestic yards. Port services, coastal shipping and inland waterways also need vessels that could be ordered in series.

The report proposes bringing the requirements of public sector undertakings, port authorities, coastal operators and inland-waterway agencies into a single procurement plan, updated regularly over a 10-year horizon. For vessel types that several buyers need, a common reference design would allow yards to reuse engineering work. Equipment suppliers would also have a clearer basis for investing in tooling and certification.

How does the 11-fold benchmark compare with India’s capacity target?

India aims to rank among the top ten shipbuilding economies by 2030 and the top five by 2047. Its separate 2047 target for annual shipbuilding capacity is 4.5 million GT. If yards had delivered that tonnage in 2025, India would have accounted for about 5.8% of global output. The tonnage needed for fifth place will change as production in other countries changes.

The Union Cabinet approved a ₹69,725 crore maritime package in September 2025. It includes ₹24,736 crore for shipbuilding financial assistance, ₹25,000 crore for the Maritime Development Fund and ₹19,989 crore for the Shipbuilding Development Scheme. The last of these supports new shipbuilding clusters and expansion at existing yards.

By August 2026, five proposed clusters had received in-principle approval: Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu, Dugarajapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, Kuchhadi in Gujarat, Kendrapara in Odisha and Dighi in Maharashtra. The report recommends tracking how much yard capacity is in use, whether ships are delivered on schedule and how much equipment is sourced domestically.

Why develop ship repair alongside new construction?

An estimated 7–9% of global maritime traffic passes within 300 nautical miles of India’s coast, yet India held less than 1% of the global ship-repair market in 2024. The report identifies turnaround times, spare-parts availability and customs procedures as factors affecting a shipowner’s choice of repair yard.

Repair work can keep docks, skilled tradespeople and local suppliers occupied between newbuilding contracts. At Vadinar in Gujarat, the Cabinet approved a ₹1,570 crore repair facility in May 2026 with planned capacity for 34 large ships a year. Its ability to attract passing vessels will depend on how reliably operators can schedule a docking, obtain parts and return a ship to service.