L&T forays into ship building

Larsen & Toubro on Tuesday announced that the company has won a key contract for construction of four ships valued at over Rs 440 crore (Rs 4.4 billion) from Zadeko Ship Management CV of the Netherlands.

According to a release issued by L&T to the Bombay Stock Exchange on Tuesday, the order marks the formal launch of the company's venture into shipbuilding.

The vessels will be built at a new shipyard that will form part of the company's state of the art engineering complex at Hazira, Surat.

A M Naik, CMD of the company, said shipbuilding would significantly expand the company's high technology manufacturing capabilities, and represented another major step forward in meeting L&T's strategic growth objectives.

He added that the new venture would also be aligned with the national priority for extending India's shipbuilding capabilities and enhancing the country's share of the global shipbuilding market', the release added.