When Bangladeshi labourer Abdul Karim was laid off from his
shipbuilding job in Singapore because of the global recession, he did
not expect to find the same sort of work at home. But the 35-
year-old, like similarly skilled shipbuilding labourers who have
worked abroad, returned six months ago to find the industry booming
and his expertise much in demand. "My salary is about 40 percent
lower than it was in Singapore, but overall I'm better off in
Bangladesh and I get to stay close to my family," said Karim, who now
earns around 300 dollars each month. Bangladesh is better known for
shipbreaking -- dismantling of old vessels -- but now, just a few
kilometres (miles) north of the shipbreaking yards, men like Karim
are creating new ocean- going ships. And experts say it is a safer,
less environmentally damaging industry that can create hundreds of
thousands of jobs. "Bangladesh's garment industry became big because
it was cheaper here to make clothes than anywhere else in the world,"
said Sakhawat Hossain, chief executive of Western Marine, one of the
main shipbuilders. "The same thing is now happening with
shipbuilding. European buyers are flocking here. If more building
yards emerge, we can take orders worth a billion dollars a year by
2015. " Hossain said Bangladesh had become a natural destination for
shipbuilding because costs in other countries had become too high.
His firm once built cargo boats and ferries for inland and coastal
waters but it graduated into ocean-going shipbuilding three years ago
and has enough orders until 2012 from Denmark, Germany and Norway.
He estimates that one in four of his 1 ,600 employees has recently
returned from shipbuilding yards abroad, most after losing jobs
through cuts due to contract defaults and delayed orders amid the
recession. He wants to hire another 2 ,500 welders, fitters and
foremen in the next few months. "The layoffs in other countries are a
gain for us," Hossain said. "It's win-win, we benefit from their
knowledge abroad and they get a decent salary at home." Western
Marine, along with the other main Bangladeshi firm Ananda
Shipbuilders, have in the past two years signed deals to build 50
ships worth 600 million dollars. All are on the small side of the
business, but that is where Bangladesh has an advantage, according to
Hossain. "Top global shipbuilders are not interested in making
smaller vessels that weigh less than 20 , 000 dead weight tonnage
because of high labour cost and shrinking profit." If this trend
continues, Bangladesh, with its experience of building vessels to
traverse the delta nation, could emerge as a shipbuilding hub.
"Shipbuilding is in our blood. Our workers have been building boats
for centuries and now tens of thousands of them work in shipyards
across Asia," said Khabirul Haque Chowdhury, a naval architecture
professor at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Training. He
said that unlike the controversial shipbreaking industry,
shipbuilding is environmentally safe, and could help the poor nation
of 144 million people become a middle income country. "Building
ships is like building a city. When it grows, dozens of other
industrial sectors such as painting, furniture, steel and electrical
equipment also grow," he said. The programme coordinator of the Danish
Embassy's business-to-business programme, Morten Lynge, said
European companies that placed the first orders in 2007 took a huge
gamble, but it appeared to have paid off and the industry was showing
big potential for the future. "We have estimated that some 55
percent of the world's small ships are aged over 20 years, meaning
they need to be replaced within the next few years. I think
Bangladesh will be the largest beneficiary," said Lynge, who is
hosting 23 Danish vessel makers in Bangladesh next month to explore
joint ventures. Although Bangladesh has so far been largely immune to
the effects of the global economic crisis, the shipbuilding business
has felt a small slowdown with a German firm cancelling orders for
four ships worth 42 million dollars. "We can win back the orders once
the global economy turns around," said Ananda Shipbuilders owner
Abdullahel Bari. "Western companies will definitely come here.
Bangladesh will be a major shipbuilder," he said, but he warned the
government needed to invest in gas and electricity for the potential
to be realised. Subhash Moydey, an engineer who has recently
returned to Bangladesh after 30 years working at yards across the
globe, is optimistic. "When I started in Singapore it was a small
business. Until the economic crisis it was booming," the 55- year-old
said. "I predict the same story for my country. We have the workers
to power the boom. I can already see it beginning to happen."
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