The newbuilding portfolio includes 23 crab catchers
The expected investment in the construction of fishing vessels based on the results of ‘keel-per-crab-quatas’ auctions may total approximately RUB 46-47 billion, VARPE president said.
German Zverev, President of the Russian Association of Fishery Enterprises, Entrepreneurs, and Exporters (VARPE) told IAA PortNews that the construction of ships was supposed to take place over five years at the first phase, and this will allow investors to distribute the financial burden as painlessly as possible. At the second phase, investments will be required in a shorter time frame.
Mr Zverev commented: “We estimate investments in newbuilds at approximately 46-47 billion rubles. The bulk of these orders will go to the United Shipbuilding Corporation investment portfolio. We assess the domestic shipyards’ capabilities as sufficient enough to execute the orders: the practice of implementing the first stage of investment quotas shows that Russian shipbuilders have the capabilities and competencies to build such a fleet.”
He noted that fishing companies will tailor fishing vessel designs to their capabilities and production strategies.
The auctions were held October 16-18 to distribute part of the crab fishing quotas. A total of 27 lots were sold with the total sale price at 214.27 billion rubles. There were 160 auction participation applications submitted and 13 companies were announced winners. This exceeded the initial total cost by almost 10 billion rubles.
Most of the quota lots (23 units) were allocated for investment commitments to build a medium-tonnage crab fishing vessel with length overall exceeding 50 meters.