Sri Lanka’s Colombo Dockyard Returns to Profitability as Orders Rise

Sri Lanka’s biggest shipbuilder, Colombo Dockyard, has returned to profit following several years of restructuring. In a stock exchange filing last week, the dockyard reported positive earnings in the three months ending June. For the period, the yard reported a profit of $240,000, recovering from a loss of $2.4 million recorded in the similar quarter last year.

Throughout 2025, the yard successfully reduced its losses up to the first quarter of 2026, when its last reported loss was $1.2 million. Although the revenue for the quarter grew by 7.6% to $22.7 million, the strong performance was heavily impacted by high administrative and finance expenses. Overall, for the 15-month period from January 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026, the yard had a total loss of $8.7 million against a turnover of $108 million.

The 15-month extended reporting period followed a decision by the yard to change its financial year-end from December to March. This was part of the wider restructuring by the yard in the last one year, which also included a rights issue, raising over $38 million in new equity. Further, the yard early this year finalized majority control by India’s state-owned Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL), which now controls a 51% stake. A swing back into profitability has been attributed to these ongoing reforms in ownership and restructuring of the company.

For the three months to June when the yard made a profit, ship repair was the strongest performing operation. The revenue for the segment during the quarter climbed 48.4% to $11 million.

The shipbuilding segment is also building up, though it has remained loss-making. However, during the quarter under review, the loss narrowed from $2.6 million to $1.1 million. Notably, Colombo Dockyard has strengthened its reputation in building cable-laying vessels, which has seen it attract two international cable ship owners in a span of one year.

Last week, the UK-based Global Marine Group signed a contract at the yard for construction of a new cable maintenance vessel. The order is scheduled for delivery in Q4, 2029, with Global Marine saying that it forms part of its planned renewal of its fleet. In December, Colombo Dockyard also secured a contract to build two cable laying vessels for France’s Orange Marine. The twin order was the largest shipbuilding contract that Colombo Dockyard ever signed in its history.