Due to the riverine geography of Bangladesh, ships have been playing a major role in the trade affairs of the people of this country since ancient times. According to the accounts of the 14th century
Moroccan traveler
Ibn Batuta, there used to be large fleets of warships docked in various ports of the country. A medieval European traveler Caesar Frederick documented that the port city of
Chittagong and
Sandwip were manufacturing hubs of large ships during the mid 15th century. The volume of shipbuilding swelled extensively during the
Mughal period. During the 17th century, the shipyards of Chittagong and Sandwip used to build warships for the
Sultan of Turkey.
Mughal era During the
Mughal Empire, the province of
Bengal Subah had a large shipbuilding industry. Economic historian Indrajit Ray estimates that shipbuilding output of Bengal during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries at 223,250 tons annually, compared with 23,061 tons produced in nineteen colonies in North America from 1769 to 1771. He also assessed that ship repairing as very advanced in Bengal.
Modern era Dockyard and Engineering Works Limited, the first modern shipyard of Bangladesh, was established in 1922, constructed during the
British era in the subcontinent. After the liberation war in 1971, the dockyard was nationalized under the ministry of industries. Later it came under the control of Bangladesh Navy in 2006. In 1979, the sector received its first foreign investment after the independence of Bangladesh when
Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding Industry, a Japanese enterprise, formed a joint venture with High Speed Shipyard of Bangladesh to establish a shipyard at
Fatullah, Narayanganj. By the 2000s, several more private shipyards were established and in 2008, Bangladesh became a ship exporting country. == Industry ==