Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders has achieved a historic milestone in the Indo-Pacific region by making its first overseas acquisition: a controlling 51 percent stake in Colombo Dockyard PLC for about USD 52.96 million. The acquisition not only strengthens Mazagon Dock’s vision of being a domestic warship builder turned international maritime giant but also gives India its first foothold in Sri Lanka’s best shipbuilding and repair facility.
The basis for this transaction is Colombo Dockyard’s undeveloped engineering workshop at Hambantota International Port—a China Merchants Ports Group asset. By adding this terminal at the southernmost tip, Mazagon Dock gains immediate adjacency to a deep-water logistics center in one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. Red Sea disruption-diverted vessels already drove the Port of Colombo to a record 6.31 million TEUs of transshipment in 2024, evidence of the site’s runaway attraction.
Placed in the midst of the high-revenue Asia–Europe axis, the Port of Colombo recorded a record 7.78 million TEUs in aggregate last year, rising 12.1 percent year-on-year. Through improvements at the East Container Terminal and Colombo West International Terminal to increase capacity to over 10 million TEUs in 2025, Colombo is poised to become a 9 million TEU giant—just when Mazagon Dock plans its strategic expansion.
Beyond the economic benefits, the acquisition plays a significant role in India’s geopolitical rivalry with China. Chinese funds are pouring in under the Belt and Road Initiative into Hambantota, while India’s Maritime Amrit Kaal Vision 2047 involves acquiring strategic points in the Indian Ocean Region. Taking over Colombo Dockyard, which has Japanese origins in Onomichi Dockyard, and its four graving dry docks that can accommodate ships weighing up to 125,000 DWT, Mazagon Dock enhances the hand of New Delhi in naval repair and logistics operations for commercial as well as defense fleets.
Colombo Dockyard had its inception in 1974 as Sri Lanka’s premier shipbuilding, heavy engineering, and offshore conversion facility. Its dry docks vary from a 9,000 DWT shipbuilding basin to the enormous 125,000 DWT graving dock, South Asia’s largest, with a straightforward capacity to service Aframax tankers. The yard repairs more than 200 ships every year, with workshops enabled for high-pressure blasting, underwater fitting installation, and retrofit conversion, firming up its technical superiority image.
The deal structure combines base capital contribution with secondary acquisitions from existing shareowners, such as Japan’s Onomichi Dockyard. The deal will close in four to six months, pending common closing conditions and regulatory clearance. On completion, Colombo Dockyard will be officially part of Mazagon Dock, releasing research and development synergies, collaborative design capabilities, and a steady stream of ship repair orders along the Indian Ocean belt.
As the international shipping community is accommodating changing trade routes and geostrategic competition, Mazagon Dock’s Colombo bet is indicative of the way state-owned companies are remapping regional power structures. For Sri Lanka, injections of Indian capital ensure that Colombo Dockyard finances will be infused, speed up its Hambantota workshop launch, and put it on the list of world-class shipbuilders. For India, it is the dawn of a new era—when the blue waters of the Indian Ocean will welcome not only visiting ships of trade but also the ambitions of an emerging naval-industrial behemoth.
