India targets global maritime leadership as Minister Puri seeks shipbuilding pact with Japan’s top firms

THEBUSINESSBYTES BUREAU

NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 18, 2025

India’s ambition to emerge as a global maritime powerhouse received a major push on Tuesday as Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri held a series of high-level discussions in Japan with top executives of the country’s leading shipping giants. The talks focused on strategic collaboration in shipbuilding, technology transfer and joint manufacturing, signalling New Delhi’s intent to scale up its maritime capabilities under the vision of ‘Make in India for the World’.

Puri, who is currently on an official visit to Japan, described his meeting with Yukikazu Myochin, Chairman of ‘K’ Line, as “productive,” noting that the interaction centred on India’s ongoing efforts to transform itself into a maritime shipping hub under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He emphasised that with its long-standing presence in India and deep expertise in shipbuilding monitoring, delivery and chartering, ‘K’ Line is well-positioned to play a significant role in India’s shipbuilding ambitions.

The minister wrote on X that the Japanese company’s strengths make it a valuable partner in the country’s quest to emerge as a major global manufacturing centre for large vessels. He added that India’s expanding energy sector, which relies heavily on massive shipping capabilities, offers enormous scope for such collaborations.

Puri also met Nobuhiro Kashima, Senior Managing Executive Officer of NYK Line Japan, to review the ongoing shipping business between Indian public sector oil companies and the leading Japanese carrier. The discussions explored prospects for future joint manufacturing in alignment with the spirit of ‘Make in India’, he said. According to Puri, Indian companies are keen to work with NYK in areas such as technology transfer, shipbuilding monitoring, knowledge sharing, joint shipbuilding and ship operations.

The minister highlighted that India is building a robust ecosystem to support large-scale ship manufacturing. As part of these efforts, the government has introduced the Shipbuilding Financial Assistance Scheme (SBFAS) and the Maritime Development Fund (MDF), which together hold a corpus of over $6 billion. These initiatives aim to reduce the effective cost of debt and improve project bankability, ultimately encouraging domestic shipbuilding.

Puri noted that India’s energy sector is undergoing unprecedented expansion, which calls for the deployment of large vessels to support both current and future operations. With the country spending $5–8 billion annually on freight charges, strengthening domestic shipbuilding has become both a strategic and economic imperative.

Reaffirming the government’s commitment to creating a world-class maritime ecosystem, Puri said multiple steps are being taken to ensure that vessels required for India’s growing needs are manufactured domestically. He stressed that the overarching goal is not just to meet India’s requirements but to position the nation as a global shipbuilding hub in line with the vision of ‘Make in India for the World’.