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  • 2007 November 16

    Aleksei Klyavin about competitiveness of Russian fleet

    The strength of Russian International Register of Vessels (RIRV), the Law on which was passed in December 2005, continues to grow. According to Aleksei Klyavin, Director of the Department for State Policy in Maritime and River Transport, RF Transport Ministry, as of today, the Register comprises 172 vessels of some 600,000 tonnes in total deadweight.

     

    Speaking about the Ministry’s work in this sphere, Mr. Klyavin told that at the initial stage of the Register’s functioning mainly sea-and-river going vessels were registered, while today there is a tendency to register large-capacity sea-going vessels. “For example, Murmansk Shipping Company and Novorossiysk Shipping Company have registered their first vessels with RIRV. Sovcomflot OJSC plans to register its newbuilding Vasili Dinkov under Russian flag in the nearest future,” Mr. Klyavin told.

     

    One of tasks facing the state in view of the necessity to raise the competitiveness of the RF fleet is expansion of the share of Russian shipping companies in total volume of national foreign trade cargo transportation.

     

    In this context, Mr. Klyavin said that “to solve the task under conditions of intensified state support in the sphere of national transport, we presume that competitiveness of Russian marine fleet should be based on the following parameters:

     

    -tax regulations for Russia ship owners should ensure support of competitive freight rates at the world market of transport services as today the level of freight rates is the main factor in the competition of shipping companies for access to cargo base;

     

    - all the international requirements related to safety of navigation and technical state of vessels should be strictly observed as today the compliance with the requirements envisioned by international conventions is the main factor in the competition of well developed fleets for access to the market of transport services;

     

    - the fleet should undergo modernization as a vessel may be considered as a competitive one if it is not more than 12-15 years old;

     - the quality of personnel training should be improved as qualifying requirements are critical in the situation when navigation is developing as a whole and the volume of hazardous cargo transportation is growing in particular.”
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