Tough times boost Bangladesh shipbuilding

But the 35-year-old, like similarly skilled shipbuilding laborers 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 US$300 each month.

Bangladesh is better known for shipbreaking — dismantling of old vessels — but now, just a few kilometers (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, has in the past two years signed deals to build 50 ships worth US$600 million.

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