CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh, Oct. 14 (AFP) – When Bangladeshi labourer Abdul Karim was laid off from his shipbuilding job in Singapore because of the global recession, he did not expect to find the same sort of work at home.

But the 35-year-old, like similarly skilled shipbuilding laborers who have worked abroad, returned six months ago to find the industry booming and his expertise much in demand.

"My salary is about 40 percent lower than it was in Singapore, but overall I'm better off in Bangladesh and I get to stay close to my family," said Karim, who now earns around 300 dollars each month.

Bangladesh is better known for shipbreaking – dismantling of old vessels – but now, just a few kilometres (miles) north of the shipbreaking yards, men like Karim are creating new ocean-going ships.

And experts say it is a safer, less environmentally damaging industry that can create hundreds of thousands of jobs.

"Bangladesh's garment industry became big because it was cheaper here to make clothes than anywhere else in the world," said Sakhawat Hossain, chief executive of Western Marine, one of the main shipbuilders.

"The same thing is now happening with shipbuilding. European buyers are flocking here. If more building yards emerge, we can take orders worth a billion dollars a year by 2015."

Hossain said Bangladesh had become a natural destination for shipbuilding because costs in other countries had become too high.

His firm once built cargo boats and ferries for inland and coastal waters but it graduated into ocean-going shipbuilding three years ago and has enough orders until 2012 from Denmark, Germany, and Norway.

He estimates that one in four of his 1,600 employees has recently returned from shipbuilding yards abroad, most after losing jobs through cuts due to contract defaults and delayed orders amid the recession.

He wants to hire another 2,500 welders, fitters and foremen in the next few months.

"The layoffs in other countries are a gain for us," Hossain said. "It's win-win, we benefit from their knowledge abroad and they get a decent salary at home."

Western Marine, along with the other main Bangladeshi firm Ananda Shipbuilders, have in the past two years signed deals to build 50 ships worth $600 million.

All are on the small side of the business, but that is where Bangladesh has an advantage, according to Hossain.

"Top global shipbuilders are not interested in making smaller vessels that weigh less than 20,000 dead weight tonnage because of high labor cost and shrinking profit."

If this trend continues, Bangladesh, with its experience of building vessels to traverse the delta nation, could emerge as a shipbuilding hub.

"Shipbuilding is in our blood. Our workers have been building boats for centuries and now tens of thousands of them work in shipyards across Asia," said Khabirul Haque Chowdhury, a naval architecture professor at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Training.

He said that unlike the controversial shipbreaking industry, shipbuilding is environmentally safe, and could help the poor nation of 144 million people become a middle-income country.

"Building ships is like building a city. When it grows, dozens of other industrial sectors such as painting, furniture, steel and electrical equipment also grow," he said.