Cochin Shipyard Company Profile, Products and Revenue

Cochin Shipyard Limited, the Kochi yard that built India’s 45,000-ton aircraft carrier INS Vikrant, is India’s largest shipbuilding and repair facility and is about three quarters owned by the central government. Commissioned in 2022, Vikrant put the yard on the naval map, and its commercial and repair business is now growing alongside defense work.

1972

Year the company was incorporated

~45,000 t

INS Vikrant, India’s first home-built carrier

2017

Year of the stock market listing

~73%

Government of India stake, reported

Cochin Shipyard at a glance

Cochin Shipyard Limited, or CSL, sits on the coast of Kerala in the port city of Kochi. Unlike the other yards in India’s defense sector, it reports to the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways rather than the Ministry of Defence, which helps explain its strong commercial orientation.

Company fact sheet

Item	Detail
Full name	Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL)
Headquarters	Kochi, Kerala, India
Incorporated	1972; shipbuilding began in the early 1980s
Ownership	Government of India, roughly 73 percent after a 2017 IPO (reported)
Ministry	Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways
Core business	Naval and commercial shipbuilding, ship repair, offshore vessels, ferries

Source: public company information; shareholding is approximate.

Who owns Cochin Shipyard

The Indian government remains the dominant owner with roughly 73 percent, reported, and the balance is publicly traded. Because it is not under the defense ministry, CSL is free to compete for foreign shipbuilding orders, and it has done so for decades, building vessels for European owners long before it tackled a carrier.

Its state ownership still brings influence. The yard is a strategic asset of India’s maritime push, and expansion plans, including a new large dry dock and a major ship repair facility, have been backed by central and state funding.

What does Cochin Shipyard build

Key CSL products

Segment	Examples	Notes
Aircraft carrier	INS Vikrant (IAC-1)	India’s first indigenous carrier, commissioned in 2022
Naval craft	Shallow-water anti-submarine craft	Shared order with Garden Reach, reported eight ships each
Commercial vessels	Offshore support, cable and wind farm vessels	Delivered to Norwegian, German and other owners
Passenger vessels	Kochi Water Metro electric-hybrid ferries	Domestic urban transit boats
Ship repair	Large dry dock and international repair facility	Growing segment with private and naval customers

Source: company and Indian government information; details vary by contract.

INS Vikrant and naval programs

INS Vikrant was laid down in 2009 and commissioned in September 2022, after a long development. About 262 meters long and displacing roughly 45,000 tons, it operates MiG-29K fighters and helicopters from a ski-jump deck. The project gave CSL skills in steel production, large-block construction and warship outfitting that had no precedent in India. Vikrant sits at the smaller end of the scale set out in our top 10 navies overview of carrier fleets.

Beyond the carrier, CSL is building anti-submarine craft and has expressed interest in larger programs including landing platforms and fleet support ships. A reported memorandum with South Korea’s HD Hyundai, discussed in our profile of HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, aims to bring advanced shipbuilding practice to the yard, though terms remain subject to confirmation.

Cochin Shipyard revenue and outlook

CSL’s annual revenue has recently run in the range of roughly ₹4,000 to ₹5,000 crore, or about $500 to $600 million, based on its filings, with an order book reported at several thousand crores and growing. Commercial orders, especially for European offshore and wind-farm operators, account for a large part of turnover, and repair work is a fast-growing segment.

The outlook depends on scaling. India has ambitions to grow its share of global shipbuilding from a very small base, and CSL is one of the strongest candidates to lead. Constraints include supplier depth, skilled labor and the long lead times of naval programs. The company also competes with private builders such as Tata Advanced Systems in some niches.

The physical scale of the yard helps: its main building dock is large enough for carrier-sized hulls, and a newer, larger dry dock in Kochi has been developed so that it can handle bigger commercial and naval vessels. A repair facility at the same site aims to attract international ship owners, a market that has long gone to Gulf and Southeast Asian ports.

That ambition rests on skilled labor in Kerala and a supplier base that now includes domestic steel, electrical gear and propulsion equipment. The shift from assembling imported kits to integrating Indian-made systems is the main reason naval planners treat Vikrant as a milestone.

Editor’s read

CSL is India’s most commercially minded state shipbuilder and its only carrier builder. The next proof point will be whether it can repeat Vikrant-scale complexity at a faster pace, for the Navy and for foreign customers.