ruben.maritime

MOSCOW 27 December Russia's defence minister, Sergei Ivanov, has moved one step further in his plan to reorganise Russia's shipbuilding industry, with an announcement that three holding companies for the country's shipyards will be created. One is to consolidate the military yards of St Petersburg; a second to unify the civil shipbuilders and a third to be located in the Russian Far East, where there is currently just one yard at work: the Amur Shipbuilding Plant in Blagoveschensk. According to Ivanov, "it is important for us not to lose our position in the construction of ships of various classes on the Pacific coast". In August, President Vladimir Putin publicly ordered a new state programme to reinvigorate shipbuilding, and gave Ivanov the assignment. "Our niches where we are most competitive in the world markets of shipbuilding," Putin said, according to the Kremlin transcript, "should be selected." Referring to military shipbuilding as a "serious niche" in the market, Putin also added: "we do not need to compete with the Chinese and South Koreans [to build] large-capacity vessels, such as tankers. But for us, there are certain advantages, including in the field of high technologies." Moscow maritime sources told Fairplay they see no commercial benefit to the existing yards from the restructuring. Captain Mikhail Nenashev of the industry lobby the All-Russian Movement of Fleet Support, told Fairplay "no details were announced so far". ICT, former owner of the big Baltic Plant in St Petersburg, commented that Ivanov's announcement shows there is a plan, "but nothing more." MNP, the biggest ship-building group on the Volga River, added that Ivanov's announcement was news to them, and that "nobody is negotiating with us on this matter”.

 

Etiquetas: shipbuilding, shipyards

This entry was posted on miércoles, diciembre 27, 2006 at 1:45 p. m.. You can skip to the end and leave a response.