During the 2012 winter navigation season Rosmorport’s icebreakers were operating in the Azov Sea at maximum capacity, the Federal Agency of Maritime and River Transport (Rosmorrechflot) said.
Despite the most severe winter conditions in the Sea of Azov in the past 50 years, a fleet of icebreakers managed to ensure smooth shipping and helped avoid interruption of the regional ports’ operations and long ship dwell time.
The federal agency formed on February 3rd the Ice Operations Headquarters (IOHQ) based in Port of Taganrog, a maritime regional commission to manage operations of icebreakers escorting merchant ships to / from the ports in the Sea of Azov. Later, the IOHQ was relocated to the Port of Rostov-on-Don.
Overall, Rosmorport owned diesel-electric icebreakers Kapitan Demidov, Kapitan Chudinov, Kapitan Krutov and Kapitan Moshkin had escorted 760 cargo ships to / from the Azov Sea-based ports.