Colombo Dockyard expands

Harshini PERERA

The Colombo Dockyard PLC (CDPLC) will shift some of its activities to a new site in Mattakkuliya, adjoining the Kelani river.

The new venture to the site will give extra mileage to CDPLC to work on a spacious environment at the Sri Lanka Ports Authority premises, Colombo Dockyard PLC Managing Director/CEO Mangala Yapa told Daily News Business.

The total investment for the project will be around Rs 400 million while it is spent on the site development and to accomplish the new International Maritime Organization (IMO) resolution on Performance Standard for Protective Coatings (PSPC) on vessels.

The IMO resolution has come into force for newly built ships that is called PSPC. It needs to be developed inside the Dockyard with special facilities. The shifting of some of the activities to the new site will be a support for current activities.

The activities such as reprocess of steel materials prior to the production of new ships, pipe fabrication and most of the heavy engineering work will be accomplished at the new site.

"CDPLC has limitations inside the Sri Lanka Ports Authority for some activities and we made this decision as an immediate action to take some of our activities out which will enable us to grow further while supporting the current activities," Yapa said.

He said compared to last year, there is a dip in the ship constructions and therefore company had an impact in its performance. "Since the market situation is improving at present, we can expect a recovery in the industry at the end of this year."

The new site will enhance the capacity and thus the quality of the CDPLC can be improved as a further step to cater to the international market more aggressively.

source - www.dailynews.lk