Krasnoye Sormovo shipyard (United Shipbuilding Corporation, USC) has laid down a passenger ship of Project PV300, IAA PortNews correspondent reports from the ceremony.
The keel-laying ceremony was attended by Rishat Bagautdinov, Chairman of Vodohod BoD; Aleksandr Shishkin, Managing Director of Volga Shipping Company; Gennady Yegorov, Director General of Marine Engineering Bureau; Nikolai Zharkov, Director General of Krasnoye Sormovo shipyard; Yevgeny Zagorodny, Vice President of USC, etc.
This will be the second liner of Project PV300.
The delivery of the ship is scheduled for the first quarter of 2020. The liner is intended for transportation of passengers by river cruise lines: Moscow – Astrakhan, Moscow – Saint-Petersburg, Moscow – Rostov-on-Don.
When speaking at the ceremony, USC Vice President for Civil Shipbuilding Yevgeny Zagorodny said: “A sustainable load programme is needed to ensure operational stability of a company. Krasnoye Sormovo has succeeded in this respect. The line of modernized tankers of Project RST27M and dry cargo carriers of Project RSD59 will let build up the personnel potential and the economic state of the company during the coming two years. We hope that despite the challenges of our task associated with design innovations and unconventional finishing solutions, the staff of the Krasnoye Sormovo shipyard will, as usual, fulfill it as scheduled and with the highest quality".
In his turn, Rishat Bagautdinov, Chairman of Vodohod BoD, said: “Just three years ago the construction of cruise river ships at Russian shipyards sounded like a utopian idea because passenger ships are more expensive as compared with cargo carriers and the period of their navigation is much shorter. However, today, everything resumes its normal course largely due to the state support measures and the USC efforts”.
During the event, Aleksandr Shishkin, Managing Director of Volga Shipping Company, donated to Vodokhod the head figure of the passenger diesel electric ship Sovetsky Soyuz, which was put into operation in 1959. The figure kept by the shipping company is shaped as the Soviet Union emblem.
"Today, Krasnoye Sormovo shipyard is holding the leading position in the country when it comes to the tonnage of delivered cargo ships. The shipyard was the first to build Russia’s most advanced dredgers. Now it is among the first shipyards entrusted to build passenger ships for river tourism. I am sure that the Krasnoye Sormovo shipbuilders will fully justify this confidence” said Nikolai Zharkov, Director General of Krasnoye Sormovo shipyard.
The lead ship of Project PV300, the first cruise liner of sea/river class to be built in Russia over the 60-year period, was laid down at Astrakhan-based shipyard Lotus in August 2016. The customer of the ship intended for the Caspian Sea is Moscow River Shipping Company.
Krasnoye Sormovo shipyard will build a cruise liner of Project PV300 under the contract with Gosznak-Leasing and Vodohod signed in January 2017.
Four-deck cruise ship of Project PV300 has a length of 141 m, breadth – 16.8 m, accommodation – 342 passengers, crew and personnel – 144, service speed – 22.5 km/h, cruising range – about 6,000 km. Class notation of Russian River Register - М-Пр 3,0 (ice 30) А.
PV300 was designed by Marine Engineering Bureau - Design - SPb.
MNP Group (Marine Oil & Gas Projects) is the Company Manager of shipbuilding projects. The Group comprises shipbuilding, naval architecture and marine engineering firms based in Nizhny Novgorod - Krasnoye Sormovo Shipyard, Sormovskoe Engineering, Volgograd Special Engineering Plant, and the Volga-Caspian Design Bureau. Project management is the key competence of the Group.
Krasnoye Sormovo PJSC is one of the oldest shipbuilding companies in Russia, founded in 1849. Throughout the 75-year period, more than three hundred submarines and rescue vehicles including 25 nuclear ones have been built and modernized by Krasnoye Sormovo shipyard. Today, Krasnoye Sormovo builds vessels of commercial fleet meeting the requirements of international conventions on reliability and safety.
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.