Mumbai:The local industry expects to expand to $20 billion by 2020 from the current $5 billion market, according to a report by maritime consultants I-maritime Consultancy.

"Besides subsidies given by the Indian government to local ship- builders, which is a big incentive, a major part of the ship building fleet is very old and due for replacement," said Dhananjay Datar, Chief Financial Officer, ABG Shipyard.

Engineering firm Larsen and Tourbo plans to invest about Rs.1500 cr to ship building and a repair yard. Reliance also has plans to spend $2 billion on ship-building and dredging. Earlier ship building steel used to be imported. However, today there are lot of companies that are into steel industry. Essar steel is already manufacturing ship building steel and plans to increase it with commissioning of a 1.5 million tonne plate plant in the Gujarat next year.

Further, the Indian government provided a 30 percent subsidy on value of ships built by Indian yards. This concession is for a five year period, which gives a hope for the industry to compete with their overseas competitors.