Samsung Heavy Industries announced that it delivered one of the two Aframax icebreakers ordered by Sovcomflot, a Russian state-run shipping company, at the end of March. The other one is expected to be delivered soon.
The shipbuilder said it received the payment for the vessel without any problem. The ship was ordered for US$160 million in November 2019.
Following Russia’s operation in Ukraine, major countries imposed economic sanctions on Russia. Russian financial companies were excluded from the SWIFT international payment system, so concerns were raised that Samsung Heavy Industries would face difficulty in receiving the payment for the ship.
The shipbuilder said that the payment was made according to the contract. But it has kept under wraps specific issues such as the currency or payment method.
The order backlog of the three major Korean shipbuilders landed from Russian clients is currently around US$8.05 billion (about 9.8 trillion won). Samsung Heavy Industries’ order intake of US$5 billion is the largest among the three.
Established in 1974, Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI, headquartered in Seoul) is among the largest shipbuilders worldwide. SHI is a part of Samsung Group, the largest holding of South Korea. The company produces ships of various types, floating cranes and different digital equipment for vessels.
PAO Sovcomflot (SCF Group) is one of the world's leading marine energy transportation companies, specialising in the transportation of liquefied gas, crude oil, and petroleum products, as well as the servicing of offshore upstream energy production. The Group’s fleet comprises 133 vessels with a total deadweight of over 11.6 million tonnes, including vessels owned through joint ventures. About 80 vessels have an ice class.