# Cochin Shipyard

Cochin Shipyard Ltd (CSL) is the largest shipbuilding and maintenance facility in India. It is part of a line of maritime-related facilities in the port-city of Kochi, in the state of Kerala, India. The shipyard builds platform supply vessels and double-hulled oil tankers. It has built big vessels up to 1,20,000 deadweight tonnage (DWT) capacity, making it the leading shipyard in India in terms of capacity. The company has Miniratna status.

## History

Cochin Shipyard was incorporated in 1972 as a Government of India company, with the first phase of facilities coming online in 1982.
In August 2012, the Government of India announced plans of divestment to raise capital of ₹15 billion for further expansion through an initial public offering (IPO) towards the end of the fiscal year. The government finalised the decision of stake sale on 18 November 2015. 33.9 million shares were planned to be sold, out of which the government held 113,000 shares while the others were fresh equity. However, this did not materialise until August 2017, when the company conducted its IPO and listed its shares on the BSE and NSE.

## Activities

The yard has facilities to build vessels up to 1,10,000 deadweight tonnage (DWT) and repair vessels up to 1,25,000 DWT.

### Shipbuilding

The first ship to roll out of the Cochin Shipyard was the MV Rani Padmini in 1981.
The yard has delivered two of India's largest double-hull Aframax tankers, each of 95,000 DWT, including Maharshi Parashuram and Abul Kalam Azad.
CSL has secured shipbuilding orders from internationally renowned companies from Europe and the Middle East. The shipyard is building six 30,000 DWT bulk carriers for Clipper Group of the Bahamas and the first three vessels have been launched.
Eight platform supply vessels for the Norwegian Seatankers Management Company, are also under construction..
On December 27 2024,Adani Ports and SEZ, through its subsidiary, Ocean Sparkle Limited, ordered eight tug boats from CSL. The order is worth about ₹450 crores comprisng eight 70 T Bollard Pull Azimuthing Stern Drive Tugs delivered by Udupi Cochin Shipyard Limited. Deliveries will start in December 2026 and are expected to be completed by August 2028.

#### INS Vikrant

Cochin Shipyard built India's first indigenous aircraft carrier. INS Vikrant (formerly, the Project 71 "Air Defence Ship"), the first aircraft carrier of the Indian Navy to be designed and built in India. The carrier will be the largest warship built by CSL. In February 2020, all major structural and outfitting work was declared complete. Sea trials finally began on 4 August. Five day long sea trials were successfully completed on 8 August 2021. The ship was commissioned on 2 September 2022.

### Ship repair

The shipyard started offering repair services in 1982 and has undertaken upgrades and repairs for all types of ships, including ships for the oil exploration industry, as well as scheduled maintenance and life extension for ships of the Indian Navy, Indian Coast Guard, the Union territory of Lakshadweep, Fisheries and Cochin Port Trust, SCI and the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC). It has performed major overhauls for the aircraft carrier INS Viraat.
It performed major overhauls for the aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya in 2016 and 2018.
Recently CSL was awarded major maintenance and upgrade orders from ONGC. This included major overhaul of three rigs, the mobile offshore drilling unit (MODU) Sagar Vijay, mobile offshore drilling unit Sagar Bhushan and jackup rig Sagar Kiran.
On 5 April 2024, CSL became the third Indian shipyard after Kattupalli Shipyard of Larsen & Toubro and Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders to sign a Master Ship Repair Agreement (MSRA) with the United States Navy for repair of its Military Sealift Command Fleet Support Ships. The ships operated by MSC are non-commissioned US Navy “support vessels” with civilian crews bearing the prefix “USNS”. Under the agreement, the US Naval ships of the Central Command that are in voyage are to be repaired in India.

### Others

The shipyard also trains graduate engineers in marine engineering. Around one hundred students are trained each year.