According to foreign media reports, India's largest state-owned shipbuilder, Cochin Shipyard, has signed a memorandum of understanding with the globally renowned ship management company Synergy Marine. The two parties will jointly advance shipbuilding, ship repair, and conversion projects in India. This move is seen as India's latest step to expand its role in the global commercial shipbuilding and ship repair sector.

According to the memorandum of understanding, the two parties will carry out joint business development in ship repair, conversion, newbuilding, module manufacturing, and oil and gas projects. At the same time, Synergy Marine will also provide Cochin Shipyard with mutually agreed technical and strategic advisory support for its newbuilding activities, covering areas such as project planning, execution, and quality assurance. The agreement aims to combine Cochin Shipyard's industrial capacity with Synergy's experience in owner representation, engineering, project management, and full-cycle technical management of shipbuilding and ship repair, forming a collaborative capability from project development to delivery.

Jesper Kristensen, Group Chief Executive Officer of Synergy Marine, said that the group has accumulated extensive experience in meeting shipowners' engineering and project execution requirements. Combining this experience with Cochin Shipyard's industrial capabilities can provide a pragmatic foundation for India's shipbuilding and conversion market, with relevant decisions to be guided by safety, reliability, and total cost of ownership.

It is reported that Synergy Marine has supported the delivery of more than 250 newbuilding projects, and its current newbuilding tasks involve more than 150 vessels under construction at 20 shipyards in 6 countries. The group also has experience in converting LNG carriers into floating storage and regasification units, and has conducted engineering studies for floating storage and LNG bunkering applications. Its conversion business covers feasibility studies, engineering design, equipment procurement, on-site supervision, commissioning, as well as preparation for safe operation and subsequent technical management.

Founded in 1972 and located in Kochi, India, Cochin Shipyard has long undertaken Indian defense projects and is currently accelerating the expansion of commercial projects for domestic Indian and overseas clients. Prior to this cooperation with Synergy Marine, the shipyard had reached an agreement with Singapore's Seatrium on offshore projects and signed a joint venture agreement with Drydocks World, a subsidiary of Dubai's DP World. In February 2026, Cochin Shipyard also signed a contract with CMA CGM to build six 1,700 TEU LNG-powered feeder ships, which will be the first time India builds ships for an international shipowner. In addition, Cochin Shipyard is also exploring cooperation opportunities with Maersk, with expectations that it may start with ship maintenance business.

The Indian government has in recent years continued to seek international investment and orders for the shipbuilding industry, and has proposed goals to rank among the world's top ten shipbuilding nations by 2030 and enter the global top five by 2047. Industry observers believe that cooperation between Cochin Shipyard and international partners such as Synergy Marine shows that India is trying to leverage external technology, management, and market resources to enhance its competitiveness in the global commercial shipbuilding, repair, and conversion market.