Panaji, June 25 (IANS): Months after South Korea's Kangnam Corp lost out on a deal to make eight minesweepers for the Indian Navy, it has emerged as a key contender to produce 12 minesweepers along with Goa Shipyard Ltd (GSL).

Shekhar Mital, managing director of GSL, a defence ministry shipyard, told the media that South Korea's shipbuilding industry offers competitive pricing as compared to European counterparts.

He said a series of visits to South Korea by defence ministry bureaucrats would bode well for defence trade ties between the two Asian countries.

Earlier, asked if the defence ministry's deal to make 12 Mine Counter Measure Vessel (MCMV) was limited to South Korean firms, Mital said: "It has not been finalised as yet but (a) Korean company Kangnam Corp will be one of key contenders, if I may say so.

"It will be a limited tender or a global tender, but for a product like MCMV, there are very, very few technology providers worldwide.

"Maybe in the type of technology we choose there will be only two providers, technology providers, one is from Korea and other is probably from Italy or some other. So Korean side will be strongly represented," he said.

The GSL has been awarded a Rs.32,000 crore contract to manufacture 12 MCMVs, soon after the appointment of former Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar as defence minister last year.

The defence ministry had in November 2014 cancelled a contract awarded to Kangnam Corp to manufacture eight MCMVs following revelation that middlemen were used to swing the deal.