Russia should establish its own production, or local production by foreign manufacturers, of shipboard systems, units, materials and components like engines, rudder propellers, life-support systems, pumps, compressors, electric equipment, navigation facilities, some materials (paints, covers) to comply with the requirements of commercial customers, United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) cites Aleksandr Navolotsky, head of USC import substitution department, as saying at the round table meeting «Import substitution in commercial shipbuilding. Outcomes and prospects».
The meeting was held on September 15, 2016, within the framework of the second International specialized exhibition «Import Substitution» aimed to demonstrate the development potential of Russian enterprises and organizations in manufacturing competitive import-substituting products and services. In the course of round table meeting the participants discussed the main outcome of import substitution program implementation for the first half of 2016 and further incentive measures to boost the progress in this area. Among the round table participants were RF Ministry of Industry and Trade, United Shipbuilding Corporation, Krylov State Research Center, Sovcomflot, etc.
According to Aleksandr Navolotsky, import substitution in the form of local production by foreign manufacturers is reasonable only if domestic production of new hi-tech equipment is impossible, technologically or economically, within the coming two or three years. A necessary condition for import substitution in the industry is foreign companies’ sharing new technologies and high degree of localization with wide involvement of domestic companies.
To prevent the trend towards imports there is a plan on implementation of specific measures in shipbuilding covering the period till 2020.
USC representative believes that the task can be fulfilled through three major activities: diversification of supplies, development of domestic production and attraction of foreign companies for localization of their production in the Russian Federation.
Aleksandr Navolotsky emphasized that localization process is hindered today by the absence of legally secured criteria for classification of products as produced locally by foreign manufacturers as well as by lack of orders for economically reasonable production.
Proposals on requirements for shipbuilding and marine engineering developed by USC in cooperation with Krylov State Research Center will contribute to solving the mentioned problems. The proposals are under consideration at the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC OJSC) is the largest shipbuilding company in Russia. It was set up in 2007 with 100% federal ownership. The holding comprises 60 companies and organizations (major shipbuilding and shiprepairing companies as well as leading design bureaus). Currently, USC consolidates about 80% of the domestic shipbuilding complex. The Russian market is the main focus of the state corporation though it also exports its products to 20 countries worldwide.