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Dubai, May 22 : The newly established shipping venture of India's Larsen&Toubro (L&T) is currently eyeing West Asia's shipping sector, particularly high-end offshore utilities.

Chairman and Managing Director A M Naik said Dubai presents a good future for the ship-building industry where L&T is keen to get into in order to demonstrate its world class engineering prowess.

''We have enquiries for dredgers, chemical tankers and multi-utility cargo vessels from European clients,'' Gulf News quoted Mr Naik as saying.

Last month L&T won a contract for the construction of four ships worth over Rs 4.4 billion from Zadeko Ship Management of the Netherlands.

The vessels will be built at a new shipyard that will form part of the company's engineering complex at Hazira in Surat.

Construction of the ships will begin next month.

On the company's focus in this region, he said, ''Many Indian shipyards have been getting orders from West Asia. We shall commence our marketing there in due course,'' he said.

UNI