1. Zaporozhye submarine completes the first stage of trials in Sebastopol
The Zaporozhye submarine of the Ukrainian Navy completed the first stage of harbor trials at the 13th Ship-Repair Yard of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Sebastopol, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense’s Press Service reports.
The first stage was initiated on December 15 and finished on December 31, 2010.
The trials included operational tests of the main propulsion plant, its servicing systems and mechanisms, parts of the shipborne system. Also, sonar systems and communication facilities were repaired and mounted. According to the submarine commander, the crew and representatives of the 13th Ship-Repair Yard of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, Central Design Bureau Chernomorets, etc. were engaged in the trials.
2. BenderyRiver Portrevives the Fleet
BenderyRiver Port received the motor vessel No.307 after its three-month repair and renewal. USD 30 ths were allocated by a Russian investor for its repair.
Also, a floating dock was lifted from the bottom of the Dniester River and repaired thus providing aditional additional capabilities for repair of vessels to be renewed. At present, over 20 vessels are underwater; experts of the BenderyRiver Portintend to lift them all and bring them back to life.
3. Sovcomflot places orders for two VLCC supertankers
In the late December, Sovcomflot and the Chinese company Bohai Shipbuilding Heavy Industry Co., Ltd., signed shipbuilding contracts in Beijing to build two VLCC supertankers, 320000 DWT each.
The first vessel is expected to be commissioned in the fourth quarter 2012. Supervision over the construction of the tankers in China and their further enginering management will be carried out by Novoship’s personnel.
4. Norvegian company to invest in Klaipeda yard
Rolf Fiskerstrand, owner of the Norwegian shipbuilding yard Fiskerstrand Verft AS, intends to invest in the Lithuanian company AB Vakaru Laivu Gamykla (VLG). The value of already signed contracts is nearly LTL 875.8 mln.
This joint venture based in Klaipeda builds ship hulls and superstructures, and mounts basic mechanisms. Afterwards, ships are delivered to Norway, where final operations are carried out – mounting of electrical equipment and finishing of inner spaces.
5. Mistral class ships to be built by nonexistent yards
Federal authorities have taken a critical decision to construct Mistral class ships on the Kotlin Island near St. Petersburg. Representatives of Admiralty Shipyards JSC, which is supposed to create a new shipyard in Kronshtadt, pointed out that this issue is still at the level of “political statements”. United Shipbuilding Corporation JSC also gives no comments on possibilities of constructing these ambitious assault ships on this new shipyard on the Kotlin Island.
During the international tender for the delivery of two ambitious assault ships for the Russian Ministry of Defense announced on October 5, 2010, the Russian authorities gave perference to the joint venture between the French company DCNS and the Russian company United Shipbuilding Corporation JSC (USC) in the late December last year. The initial stage involves joint construction of two ships with an option for two more. The Mistral Class helicopter carrier characteristics are, as follows: full displacement: 21300 DWT; max length: 210 m; width: 30 m; max speed: 19 knots; crew: 160. It is capable of carrying 450 mariners and landing craft - 16 heavy helicopters, air-cushion ships and motorboats. The cost is nearly EUR 400 mln per ship.
6. Sodruzhestvo fish processing vessel still trapped in ice
Today, the Krasin and Admiral Makarov icebreakers failed in their first attempt to tow the Sodruzhestvo fish processing vessel trapped in ice in the Sea of Okhotsk. According to Andrey Krainy, Head of the Russian Federal Agency for Fishery, towing ropes broke thus preventing the fish processing vessel from being rescued. New attempts will be made to bring the vessel within a day to the area, where the Bereg Nadezhdy refrigerator vessel rescued from the ice trap the day before was left.
According to the to the Press Center of the Far East Regional EMERCOM, an Mi-8 helicopter of the Russian EMERCOM Aviation Rescue Center took off from the town of Okha, Sakhalin region, to the Gulf of Sakhalin in the Sea of Okhotsk. Within a day, the helicopter with a hydroligist from the Admiral Makarov icebreaker will monitor the ice situation in the area of the Sodruzhestvo fish processing vessel, survey the ice situation and take aerial photos.
7. Zvyozdochka intends to reduce its production volumes
Zvyozdochka Ship Repair Center JSC intends to reduce its production volumes by 13.1 percent to RUR 12 bln in 2010 compared to 2009.
Under the Governmental Defense Order, Zvyozdochka Ship Repair Center carried out medium repair and upgrading of the Novomoskovsk nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine, Project 667BDRM, and the B-800 Kaluga diesel-electric submarine, Project 877 EKM, in 2010. The company completed trials of the Zvyozdochka rescue and towing vessel and transferred it to the Russian Navy in the summer 2010. In August, the company received the Verkhoturie nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine, Project 667BDRM, for renewing its technical availability. As regards to foreign economic activities, Zvyozdochka signed a contract for medium repair and upgrading of the Sindhurakshak diesel-electric submarine, Project 877 EKM, of the Indian Navy in June 2010. The major commercial order was the construction of the Arctic jack-up drilling rig under the order of Gazflot Ltd. The company intends to transfer the jack-up drilling rig to the customer in 2011.
8. USC establishes a design joint venture
USC signed a Memorandum on establishing a joint venture with the Italian company Saipem to cooperate in designing of vessels for offshore operations.
According to the corporation’s management, the joint venture will have no business assets.
9. Voronezh region announces a tender for construction a replica of the first Russian ship
Authorities of the Voronezh region announced a tender for construction of an identical replica of the first Russian naval ship - Goto Predestinatsia battleship for celebrating the city’s 425thanniversary. The initial value of the tendered contract announced on the administration’s website is RUR 300 mln.
The double-deck three-masted ship should have the foolowing dimensions: length: max 38.5 m; width: 9.5 m; hull height: 4.5 m; draft: 3.5 m. Also, the Goto Predestinatsia ship will receive 58 guns. Applications for the tender will be accepted till January 20; the tender will take place on January 29, 2011.
The Goto Predestinatsia battleship replica will be designed by the Voronezh company Vera, which is specialized in the manufacture of church bells. The battleship replica should be commissioned and put afloat before 425th anniversary of Voronezh, which will be celebrated in September 2011.
10. Zvyozdochka awarded a new contract новый контракт for propellers
Zvyozdochka Ship Repair Center JSC started manufacturing of propulsion systems under the contract for series of the RSD49 Project ice-reinforced river-marine vessels built by Nevsky Shipbuilding and Shiprepair Plant.
The contract was awarded in December 2010. Zvyozdochka Ship Repair Center will manufacture ten standard-type propulsion systems and take part in their mounting and pre-commissioning works. The propulsion system to be installed on the RSD49 Project vessels is a twin-shaft propulsion system consisting of propeller shafts and intermediate shafts, coupling sleeves, stern gear, and fixed-pitch propellers. This contract will provide nearly 20 percent of the annual volumes of Zvyozdochka’s propeller-making production.
11. President’s Plenipotentiary supports the idea to revive the Northern Sea Route
Victor Ishaev, Plenipotentiary of the Russian President in the Far Eastern Federal District, supported the idea to revive the Northern Sea Route. The Plenipotentiary stated that active development of the Russian Arctic territories is of major geopolitical importance including, but not limited to, revival of northern routes.
“Today, the Arctic region is one of our strategic lines. Thus, we have to provide Northern navigation for the development of Arctic offshore oil-gas fields and establishment of international through traffic,” he noticed. “We will certainly set up hub seaports in Tiksi, Pevek, Anadyr, and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. The construction of these ports will be naturally followed by the development of territories,” V. Ishaev said.
12. A violating schooner transferred to the public revenue
A fishing schooner that had illegally crossed the Russian border was transferred to the public revenue. Far Eastern customs officers fixed a fact of illegal border crossing by the Cambodian fishing schooner “Flower” in the area of the Golden Cape near Nakhodka on January 23 last year. A decision to transfer the schooner to the public revenue was made on October 29.
At the time, the vessel had already been close to the shore of Kamchatka, so officers of the North-Eastern Border Service stopped the schooner in the Sea of Okhotsk and convoyed it to the Port of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in November. On January 14, 2011, bailiffs transferred the Flower schooner to the Federal Agency for State Property Management. The violating vessel should be sold subsequently.
