United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) and Vyborg Shipyard tied contracts for construction of two Project 21900M diesel-powered seagoing 16-mW icebreakers on Feb 23, reported the USC press service.
The contracts with overall cost of about RUR 8 bln were signed by USC president Roman Trotsenko and Director General of JSC Vyborg Shipyard Valery Levchenko .
The icebreaker construction contracts will help the shipyard to overcome financial difficulties, provide workload for further years, pay wages, and fulfill other social commitments.
Vyborg Shipyard faced financial problems in 2010. Due to growing debts aggravated by lack of large orders, the shipyard’s directors had to put most of staff on enforced leave.
Buyout of Vyborg Shipyard ‘s control stock by USC helped the yard to get over difficulties of recent years; now the shipyard will continue working within Russia’s largest shipbuilding holding company.
“Incorporation of Vyborg Shipyard into USC opens a new chapter in the company’s history” , noted Roman Trotsenko . “We are facing enormous challenges. Sure, there will be problems of growth and development, problems related to execution of complicated orders. But you will no longer feel lack of work, new contracts, or workload” , he said.
New icebreakers planned to be delivered in May and Oct 2015 have advanced performance characteristics with due regard to experience of two Project 21900 icebreakers operated during recent winter navigation in the Gulf of Finland. At that time, diesel electric icebreakers of preceding projects failed to cope with severe ice situation in the Baltic, and Rosmorport had to engage one of nuclear-powered icebreakers constantly working in the Arctic.
Project 21900M icebreaker is a two-deck vessel equipped with a heliport and capable to break 1.5-meter thick ice; displacement is about 10,000 tons, length is 116 meters, beam is 26.5 meters.
JSC United Shipbuilding Corporation was established in 2007 with 100% shares in federal ownership. The holding comprises over 50 shipbuilding enterprises and organizations (core national shipyards and leading design bureaus). Income of the corporation in 2011 exceeded RUR 160 bln, profit was RUR 1 bln, backlog of orders is RUR 1 trillion. Russian market is a top priority for the state-led corporation, although it exports production to 20 foreign countries.
JSC Vyborg Shipyard is one of the largest shipbuilding companies in the northwest Russia with over 60-year long experience in commercial and military shipbuilding.
[mappress] Naval Today Staff , February 28, 2012; Image: gazprom