Samsung Heavy signs MOU with Russia’s United Shipbuilding Corporation
Vladimir Pakhomov, president of United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), Russian state shipbuilding holding, and Samsung Heavy's vice-chairman Kim Jing-wan inked the MOU.
Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Igor Ivanovich Sechin who is also the chairman of USC, and the Russian Ambassador to South Korea Gleb A. Ivashentsov also participated at the MOU signing ceremony.
USC is seeking to modernize Russian shipyards and unite them in three regional groups (west, north and Far East).
Main provisions of the MOU include ^ development of new business and promotion of joint-investment project, ^ co-development of design technology, ^ overall cooperation for improvement of shipbuilding technology, etc. USC and Samsung Heavy will organize a special committee in March to discuss detailed plans for cooperation.
With the MOU signing, Samsung Heavy expects to jointly receive orders for construction of ships, receive technology services charge such as new shipyard construction technology and ship design technology, etc. Also it could join the construction works of ports, roads and oil pipeline in Russia.
Russia, for its part, expects to enhance its shipbuilding productivity through the cooperation with Samsung Heavy. Russian shipbuilding industry has been focusing on defense industry orders and its productivity in commercial ship building sector is very low.
Samsung Heavy said it will transfer some of globally generalized merchant ship building technology to Russian shipyards and construct offshore units, which require high technology, in South Korea to prevent high value-added technology from leaking.
It has decided to cooperate with Russia to benefit each other rather than let other countries cooperate with Russia and threaten South Korean shipbuilding industry, Samsung Heavy added.
Samsung Heavy plans to secure more global shipbuilding bases in Southeast Asia, Central and South America, and Africa as well as Russia to open up new markets with its new products such as ice-class drillships, LNG-FPSO and icebreaking commercial vessels.
Meanwhile, the icebreaking tanker named TIMOFEY GUZHENKO on the same day was delivered to shipowner forthwith. The ship was the third of three ships ordered by Russia's Sovocomflot for $430m in 2005. Two of them were already delivered to the owner last year.