United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) and the Russian Ministry of Transport are going to sign a contract for building four icebreakers, a Transport Ministry official said Friday, RBC reports.
"The contract for four icebreakers is going to be signed very soon. We are now just finalizing with USC the vessels specifications, it’s a difficult order," Deputy Transport Ministry Viktor Olersky was quoted as saying.
Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov said that this year-end performance of Russian shipyards will show an increase in the number of constructed vessels, and at the same time a decline in their revenues. He explained that in 2010 the shipyards executed primarily orders for expensive boats. The official noted that now the shipbuilders focus more on river vessels.
The Russian government allocated in the federal budget for 2012 and for the 2013-14 period RUB 20 billion for a nuclear-powered icebreaker and over RUB 17 billion for diesel-powered ice-class vessels. Russia will spend RUB 6.26 bn for the construction of diesel-powered 25MW icebreaker and about 11 billion for 16MW diesel-electric icebreakers.