Svitzer orders eight tugs from Indian yards in eight months

Companies No. 7 14 September 2026 · 1 min read

When a giant container ship comes into port, it can't park itself. It's too big and too slow to turn in a tight harbour, so small but very powerful boats called tugs push and pull it into place. Svitzer, a Danish company that split from Maersk in 2024, runs 510 of these vessels across 157 ports.

On 2 September, Cochin Shipyard started building 4 battery-electric tugs for Svitzer. But India builds just 0.06% of the world's ships, while China, South Korea and Japan build 95%. So why come here?

The order itself is small: ₹250-500 crore, or 1-2% of the ₹21,900 crore of orders Cochin has won but not yet built. But in August, Svitzer ordered four more tugs from Swan Defence in Gujarat.

The government now pays Indian yards 15% on the first ₹100 crore of an electric ship and 25% on anything above it. On top of that, India's biggest ports are meant to switch every tug to a green one by 2040, and those tugs must be built in India. A tug may be a small boat, but it seems to be India's easiest way into building ships for the world.

3 countries built 95% of the world’s ships in 2024. India built 0.06%.

Share of ships delivered, by gross tonnage. Yet Svitzer, which runs 510 vessels in 157 ports, has ordered 8 tugs from Indian yards in 8 months.

% OF SHIPS DELIVERED, BY GROSS TONNAGE

India0.06%
China54.6%
South Korea28.0%
Japan12.6%
Rest of world4.8%

Ninth in the world, at 0.06%

Clarksons Research data as tabled by UNCTAD. Rest of world includes Viet Nam (1.01%) and the Philippines (0.93%).

UNCTAD Review of Maritime Transport 2025 · 2024

Timeline: Svitzer ordered eight tugs from Cochin Shipyard and Swan Defence in eight months, alongside India's green tug programme and shipbuilding subsidy.

Sources