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ABG?s exclusive Vocational Training Program enables ongoing skill enhance-ment. Most importantly, diverse skills such as creative and analytical thinking, technical know-how, managerial expert- ise and financial knowledge are inte- grated to create more highly motivated customer driven teams. More than 55% of the orders today arerepeat orders from old customers withwhom ABG has maintained an enduring relationship. Today, the orders in hand are worth $ 3,192 million for a total of 72 new buildings. The company boasts of celebrated clients including Sea Tankers (John Fredriksen Group ? World?s largest tanker operator), LYS-Line (Norway), Lamnalco, (Sharjah), Dess Cyprus Ltd,Maridive Offshore S.A.E. Egypt, and several others. Advantage ABG ABG has three major facilities on the Indian West coast - at Surat, Dahej and Goa. The state-of-the-art shipyard at Surat has the capacity to build vessels up to 155 meter length and 20,000 DWT. With the acquisition of Vipul yard and re- structuring of the existing yard, the ship- building capacity has more than doubled at Surat. The Dahej facility incorporates the lat- est manufacturing set-up with high levels of automation making it capable of build- ing all kinds of vessels for the Indian Navy and others of up to 250 meter length and 1,20,000 DWT. Launching of large sized vessels can be undertaken by the 33,000 ton ship lift, the heaviest ship lift facility in the world designed by Rolls Royce and built entirely in-house by ABG. A key feature of the yard is its capabil- ity to construct offshore rigs and plat- forms. Presently four jack-up rigs arebeing built. At Goa, ABG has its Western India Shipyard Ltd which is India?s largest ship and rig repair facility in the private sector. With a capacity to repair ships of up to 60,000 DWT, the yard also features state of the art floating dry dock. On the Anvil ?We have a shipyard under construction at Calcutta, on the East Coast,? informs Major Phatak. ?It will costs $ 28.9 mil-lion and be dedicated solely for building smaller vessels of 150 to 160 meters in length. Having a shipyard on the East coast will greatly help ship owners by providing them the logistical advantage, as there is no repair facility on that coast. Besides, a number of public sector com-panies are looking to outsource their shipbuilding and repair operations on the East coast. Hence we will be able to take a major share of this.? From 2000 onwards ABG has delivered 54 ships equaling approximately one shipevery 7 weeks. The company is ready to take a quantum leap into the world?s front ranking shipbuilders as those from Korea, Japan and China. Unfortunately India?s contribution to global shipbuilding activ- ity is only 0.1%. ?The reason these threenations enjoy major global share is be- cause of the support they receive from their governments by way of subsidy,? Major Phatak points out. ?Their govern- ment recognizes this industry as an em-ployment generator. Similarly, if the Indian government ex- tends similar support, ship building in India can become a major contributor. It is for the government to realize that the revenue it would have acquired through taxes would actually be much more than the subsidy it would be providing.? August 2012www.marinelink.com 69MR#8 (66-73) REAL:MR Template 8/9/2012 2:48 PM Page 69