Cochin Shipyard is expecting its shipbuilding growth momentum to continue over the next few quarters, said Madhu Nair, chairman and MD of the company.

“The pickup in shipbuilding had happened because the commercial orders have also chipped in and the work on the aircraft carrier is in very critical and advanced stages. So shipbuilding has done well and we should expect this kind of traction to continue over the next few quarters in shipbuilding,” he said in an interview with CNBC-TV18

It was a steady quarter for Cochin Shipyard as revenue growth was led by ship building while the ship repair business declined.

Speaking about ship repair revenues, Nair said, “There is going to be a little bit of a decline from the turnover figures on ship repair compared to last year. This is in-line with our expectations. So there is nothing alarming on this.”

According to him, things are generally going well and next quarter should be a notch better.

“We had quite a few vessels under construction and the vessels are reaching closer to completion. In the next few months, we will see deliveries of ships coming in and it is natural that closer to deliveries the work picks up. So we will see much more of a traction at least over the next four quarters,” said Nair.

In terms of orderbook positions, he added, “We have signed and sealed contracts of Rs 8,000 crore and what we have not signed is aircraft carrier phase-III contract and its allied material portion. So when that also comes in, we are somewhere around Rs 17,000 crore altogether orderbook position. So that is a reasonable orderbook. We are comfortable on that.”