Mazagon Dock Ltd., recently unveiled ‘Vaghsheer,’ their sixth submarine built with French and Spanish collaboration. It will be commissioned in the Indian Navy after sea trials that will stretch for over a year.

The submarine has 40 percent of its make indigenous, 20 up from the earlier five makes. The plan is to gradually scale up indigenization to 60 percent. The steel, cabling, piping, main batteries, gas analyzers, RO plants, air-conditioning and communication systems are of Indian make. An average cost of construction of each of these is around Rs 3,500 crore.

In the meanwhile, with the Government cutting down on foreign arms procurement, the Navy has further stepped on the gas for indigenization, with 39 of its 41 warships on order being built in India and around 3,400 items being indigenized till now.

The Navy also has the initial approval or ‘acceptance of necessity’ (AoN) for another 47 warships to be built in India at a cost of over Rs 1.5 lakh crore in the future. Warship-building in the country has a multiplier effect with one shipyard job leading to creation of around six jobs in the ancillary industries.

This would also mean a welcome step for the coatings segment with more opportunities opening up in the ship-building sector in our country.

After all, India has a vast coastal area which means a demand for sea faring vessels. The pandemic proved expensive for the shipping industry as many ships lying idle due to lack of cargo became unseaworthy and had to be scrapped. As the economy picks up, this has led to a shortage of seaworthy vessels which means new ships have to be built.

The main feature in this issue is on floor coatings. The demand for industrial floor coatings can be attributed to the high growth of industrial and commercial construction industries across the globe. Factors such as rapid industrialization and growing manufacturing industries particularly across the Asia-Pacific region are driving the demand for industrial floor coatings. We discuss the need for floor coatings, the different types of floor coatings and some of the products introduced into the market in recent times.

This, besides all our regular features and columns. Happy reading!!!