Danish firms ready to pay premium to build ships in India: Denmark’s Ambassador

Danish companies are willing to pay higher initial costs to build ships in India as Western economies seek alternatives to China and South Korea amid tensions.

Danish companies are willing to absorb the higher initial cost of building ships in India as geopolitical tensions drive Western economies to diversify shipbuilding supply chains, Denmark’s Ambassador to India Rasmus Abildgaard Kristensen said on Wednesday.

“Geopolitical uncertainties mean you cannot put all your eggs in one basket, and while the first couple of ships built in India will be more expensive than what you get in China or Korea—which have a fine-tuned machine with all sub-suppliers ready to go—Danish companies are willing to pay a smaller premium,” Kristensen said during an interaction with reporters.

Kristensen said Denmark saw India as the strongest potential alternative as shipbuilding remains heavily concentrated in East Asia, with Danish companies already commissioning about 10 ships in India, totalling around 40,000 tonnes, with more orders expected.

In 2025, Chinese shipyards received about 35.37 million compensated gross tonnes (CGT) of new orders—roughly 63% of the global total—while South Korean yards received 11.6 million CGT, or about 21%, according to Clarksons Research., underlining the concentration that Western economies want to diversify away from.

India is seeking to build an alternative manufacturing base through its 40-fold shipbuilding expansion target by 2047, backed by the Sagarmala 2.0 initiative announced in 2025. Kristensen said India should use the opportunity to “leapfrog” rather than replicate the conventional shipbuilding model of China and South Korea.

He said India would likely initially build smaller vessels such as coasters before gradually moving towards larger ocean-going ships as its capabilities and supplier ecosystem expand.

“We’ll probably start seeing smaller ships, coasters, and then gradually as India’s capabilities grow then even the big container ships will be built here,” he said, adding that shipbuilding on an industrial scale will not going to come back to Europe.

“India should not try to compete with the old-fashioned way of doing ships as they have been done in China and Korea for many years now,” he said, pointing instead to vessels powered by methanol, ammonia and other new fuels.

India and Denmark established their Green Strategic Partnership in 2020, with maritime cooperation reinforced through the Indo-Danish Centre of Excellence on Green Shipping in 2025. The partnership covers green shipping, digitalisation, maritime training, port-state control, regulation and sustainable ship recycling.

A Denmark-India feasibility study is examining opportunities in naval and commercial shipbuilding, while a pre-feasibility study has identified potential green shipping corridors to and from India.