L&T and Ulstein Group of Norway sign an MOU to collaborate on ship design

Larsen & Toubro Ltd has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Norwegian ship builder and designer Ulstein Group ASA for joint ship design and ship building capabilities, lending further credence to its reported move to re-enter commercial shipbuilding. The MoU was signed at the Nor-Shipping week being held in Norway, where Larsen & Toubro was part of a large Indian contingent of public and private firms led by Sarbananda Sonowal, Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways.

Ulstein Group runs the Ulstein Verft AS, a shipyard specialising in constructing advanced vessels, such as cable laying vessels, offshore wind service vessels, expedition cruise vessels, yachts and passenger (RoPax) vessels. Ulstein Design & Solutions AS develops ship designs and offers complete equipment packages for ship construction worldwide.

The designs include vessels for the offshore renewables market (offshore wind), passenger vessels, cruise vessels and yachts, fisheries, and the offshore oil and gas market (offshore construction vessels), IMR vessels, cable laying, platform supply vessels (PSVs) and anchor handling tug supply vessels. Ulstein Design & Solutions BV designs large offshore construction vessels. It develops projects for operators, contractors and ship owners in the offshore drilling, renewables, heavy-lift, construction and production market, as well as the maritime transport (feeder) market.

L&T entered shipbuilding in 2007, by constructing a shipyard at Kattupalli, hoping to capture business in a segment that has synergies with its heavy engineering capabilities and also to capitalise on the experience gained from undertaking government defence shipbuilding work at its Hazira facility. However, by the time the Kattupalli yard was ready to accept orders in 2008, Lehman Bros collapsed, triggering a global financial crisis that ripped apart global trade and consequently the demand for ships. After building a few offshore vessels (a couple of which the owners even cancelled, leaving the yard stranded with those vessels), L&T decided to exit the commercial shipbuilding segment to focus on the stable government-funded defence contracts.

But, with the announcement of a revamped shipbuilding financial assistance policy, a ₹25,000 crore Maritime Development Fund and infrastructure status to large ships in the recent Union Budget, L&T is weighing a return to commercial shipbuilding on the back of a thrust given by the government to push up Indian shipbuilding tonnage and move India up in the rank of shipbuilding nations, both in the near term and the long term, a top L&T official said recently.

At the Nor-Shipping week, L&T also signed an MoU with Norway’s DNV – one of the world’s top ship classification societies – to collaborate on multiple areas such as shipbuilding, offshore, energy systems, industrial solutions, smart infrastructure, sustainability, ESG and risk services software, cyber security and digital solutions.