Page 8: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 2013)

8 MARITIME REPORTER & ENGINEERING NEWS ? APRIL 2013 BLOGSMARITIMEPROFESSIONAL.COMIndia?s tryst with American history can be traced back to the role Indian shipbuilding played in the creation of the U.S. National Anthem ?The Star- Spangled Banner.? The lyrics came from ?Defence of Fort McHenry,? a poem written in 1814 by Francis Scott Key when aboard the Minden, a vessel that was built in India. This vessel, Minden, was built of teak by Jamshedji Bomanji Wadia and launched in 1810 from the Duncan Docks in Bombay (now Mum-bai), India. Because of this exquisite ship building facility at that time, Bombay became a strategic port for the British colonial undertakings in Asia and Min- den providing the Þ rst and only British ship of the line built out of the limits of the Mother Country until then. The Roy- al Navy came to admire the skill of its architects, for the superiority of its tim-ber, and for the excellence of its docks, giving Bombay a distinguished place among naval arsenals.The name Lothal stands out as the oldest Indian known dock in the world that existed during the Bronze Age (from 3300 to 1200 BC) . The Iron Age (1500 to 500 BC) saw Rig Veda ships commanding a lot of respect among the contemporary seafaring nations. In 326 BC, during the Nanda Period, Alexan- der the Great acquired his large boats that were built in Punjab by a tribe. The dominance of shipbuilding activity con-tinued through the ages that in 20 B.C. during the Pandya Dynasty Indian ship builders came to be known for their rich knowledge and expertise of metal-lurgy. The bolts used in ship building were of Muntz alloy (60% Copper and 40% Zinc) and the workmen were skill-ful in working with other copper alloys such as brass and bronze. Among the various manufacturing industries, the Indian government considers shipbuild-ing industry to have the highest invest-ment and employment multiplier effect says Cdr. S Navaneetha Krishnan of the Indian Navy. In his well referred book ?Prosperous Nation Building through Shipbuilding,? published recently he brings out the resilience and potentiality of the present state of the industry.? Representing a mere 1.3% of the glob-al shipbuilding share, India?s present strength include about 10 government owned shipyards and around 50 in the private sector. According to the World Economic Forum?s Global competitive- ness Index (GCI) few years ago, India continued to score well in indicator re-lated to innovation and sophistication of Þ rm operation as well as in the adoption of technologies from abroad. However, as a result of the down turn the efforts to reduce the high budget deÞ cit remained a big challenge. Considering shipbuild-ing to be the biggest force multiplier for the economy, the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has indentiÞ ed shipbuilding sector to be the vehicle for creating employment and wealth for the country. In the recent national budget the government of India after several years made a beginning - giving a minor sop to the shipbuilding industry by exempt-ing ship builders from payment of excise duty which is of around 5%. Cdr Krishnan said that the Maritime Agenda 2010-2020, the government proposes giving a boost to shipbuilding in order to achieve a global market share of 5% by 2020, annd to generate 2.5 mil-lion jobs in shipbuilding industry alone and to develop a strong Research and Development facilities and design capa-bilities for commercial ship building.With our 8,500 CY Seagoing Hopper Dredge ?Magdalen? currently under

}
v

?
?
µ

?
}
v

v


}
u
]
v
P
}
v
o
]
v

]
v
?
Z

v


?
(
µ
?
µ
?
U
Á


?





?
?
v
P
?


µ
u


(
}
? UL Masters and UL Chief Engineers 
]
v



]
?
}
v
?
}h>>
]


v


D

?



v
 
v
P
]
v


?

?
}
.
o
o
?
}
?

v
?

o
?
}

]
?
}
v

Á
]
?
Z
]
v
}
µ
?
P
?
}
Á
]
v
P
Z
}
?
?

?

?


P

G


?X
? t


l
D

?
]
v

Á

?


}
P
v
]
Ì

?
Z

?
}
µ
?
P
?


?


?
?


}
µ
?


]

}
µ
?
?

}
?
o


v

Á


?


}
u
u
]
©


?
}

?


?
v
P

v

]
v
i
µ
?
Ç

v

]
v

]


v
?
(
?

~//&
Á
}
?
l
?
o


XW
o





µ

u
]
?
Ç
}
µ
?

}
v
.


v
?

o
?


µ
u

?
} [email protected] www.weeksmarine.com KlDl&lls MR DIGITAL When you leave the page and head to the screen, Maritime Reporter offers the most digital and online news offerings. Here are select stories from last month on MaritimeProfessional.comIndian Shipbuilding Set to recover lost glory? Posted on MaritimeProfessional.com by Joseph Fonseca While the rest of the world laughs in derision, the truth is that terminal operators in California are becoming more efÞ cient and bringing in automation. SSA Marine is at the forefront of this and has been inching along for Þ ve years, principally at Long Beach. When the company Þ rst announced its plans, the dockworkers? union, the ILWU, was strident in its opposition and seemed to have stiß ed the initiative. So, SSA opted for quiet diplomacy, which seems to have worked. Knud Stubkjaer, CEO and Chief Strategic Of Þ cer, gave an update at the Pulse of the Ports meeting at Long Beach on automation and the economics perspective of the operators. As he noted, market volumes have not increased although shipping rates are competitive. As a result shipyards have lowered their asking prices for new vessels, that has in turn affected capacity. Lines have been reducing costs by going for bigger ships and, to get maximum usage, are combin-ing their resources through slot swaps, alliances and vessel sharing agreements.SSA itself is pushing IT through its subsidiary, Tideworks, but Knud Stubkjaer says terminal operators have to work together to get rid of what he calls ?idle time? in the intermodal and distribution system. The company is concentrating on two locations to increase automation. Trucks enter through covered (enclosed) optical character recognition (OCR) gates that are averaging 98 percent accuracy on their readings, even for vehicles traveling at 30 miles an hour. Lasers are used for ship-to-shore movements, allowing the crane driver to get an exact assessment of the cargo bay just by hovering over it. Then the driver just has to punch a button to get things going. Posted on MaritimeProfessional.com by Martin Rushmere Port Automation Advances in California1.3%India?s current share of the global shipbuilding orderbook MR #4 (1-9).indd 8MR #4 (1-9).indd 84/5/2013 9:39:32 AM4/5/2013 9:39:32 AM