• 2016 July 15

    Against the background of steel ships

    Russian shipbuilding industry has been getting more diversified over the recent years. USC domination in the market is decreasing while the activity of independent shipyards is growing.

    Market winds blow into private sails

    When the United Shipbuilding Corpor1ation USC was established in 2007 the shipbuilding market of Russia featured few strong independent players. With the bankruptcy of the United Industrial Corporation its enterprises (Baltiysky Zavod, Severnaya Verf, Central Design Bureau Iceberg) joined the USC with the scandals and legal proceedings accompanying the process.

    While USC as a state corporation was busy with saving the enterprises driven to a deplorable state by their previous owners and with staff and management reshuffling, independent shipyards were getting on their feet and expanding to new market niches. 

    For example, Tatarstan-based OJSC Zelenodolsk Plant named after M. Gorky has been implementing a large scale retrofitting programme from 2011. The programme is aimed ad modernization of production facilities, renovation of the equipment and machinery as well as introduction of new organisation and management methods. The shipyard has mastered the construction of high-speed passenger ships of Project А145, oil tankers of Project RST25, Grachonok-class boats and small-size missile ships of Project 21631 as well as Gepard-3.9 frigates designed for Vietnamese Navy under military and technical cooperation agreement. There is a project on creation of a shipbuilding cluster based on joint use of production, scientific and technological potential of Zelenodolsk Plant and Zelenodolsk Design Bureau.

    Okskaya Shipyard (Nizhny Novgorod), a company of UCL Holding, is also showing a rapid growth. In 2011-2016 the shipyard built 37 vessels including 10 dry cargo carriers of Project RSD44, 12 tankers of Project RST27, 3 boats of Project ST23WI, one multipurpose bunkering tanker of Project 92800, one firefighting tugboat of Project TG-17 for Sea Rescue Service of Rosmorrechflot, one boat of Project 21270 for RF Defence Ministry and a number of other vessels.

    Special attention should be paid to Pella Shipyard (Leningrad Region). The shipyard has put into operation a new production facility and has acquired a German shipyard Sietas. It boasts an in-house design bureau and is going to invest into modernization of the Crimea based shipyard Morye. A small shipyard is turning into a strong player.

    Private shipyard Laky Verf (Leningrad Region) has also succeeded having expanded the range of products to start the production of special-purpose boats for different government agencies. Similar segments are represented by Vympel and Almaz shipyards.

    Yet another example: Nevsky Shipyard which has recently launched a single-deck dry cargo vessel of mixed “river-sea” navigation Zhibek Zholy (Project RSD49) for KTZ Express Shipping (Kazakhstan).

    There are more examples available though it is evident that over the recent years non-USC shipyards have considerably advanced in the market in terms of both state orders (including the defence related orders) and exports.

    As for USC, it has mostly focused on large scale and strategic orders like construction of powerful icebreakers, Arctic class supply ships, offshore platforms, warships, submarines, etc. However, some USC companies like Krasnoye Sormovo and Lotus are also busy with construction of mixed sea/river class vessels.

    Meanwhile, the segment of large capacity ships will soon see the appearance of an alternative player, Shipbuilding Complex Zvezda being built by a consortium of investors representing the oil & gas sector on the basis of the Far Eastern Shipbuilding and Ship Repair Center. Rosneft, the leader of the consortium has acquired Central Design Bureau Lazurit, established relations with foreign industry-related companies, is going to establish its own shipbuilding and ship repair base in Murmansk. So, a new ambitious shipbuilding holding can appear in the market soon. Most probably, it will try to enter diverse market niches.

    In our opinion, the success of non-USC shipbuilding companies should be attributed to the aging of the fleet, to the fact that ship owners understand the necessity of its renovation, to state support measures which encourage the placement of orders at domestic shipyards, to designing of new projects in view of Russian reality, to boosting of state orders. The last two years also saw a positive impact of a weaker rouble.

    Vitaly Chernov