With the drastic shift of foreign trade towards eastern countries and the challenges brought by the sanctions and withdrawal of some western operators from Russia, the issue of creating our own transport fleet has become acute. The most crucial shortage is seen in the segment of bulkers and container ships. According to the Russian Ministry of Transport, container ships of up to 3,000 TEU are most needed in the container segment.
Demand Escalation
“The demand is estimated at hundreds of units. As of today, work is underway on expansion of our shipyard’s capacity and consideration of ready ships acquisition abroad by Russian beneficiaries,” Aleksandr Poshivai, Deputy Minister of Transport, said. Zakhary Dzhioev, head of the Federal Marine and River Transport Agency (Rosmorrechflot) later said 30 to 35 container ships with a capacity of 2 500-3 000 TEUs are needed. Container ships are needed in view of opening new Asian routes, including the development of the North-South international transport corridor. Besides, containerships are required for unloading of the Far East routes, which implies the organization of container lines from China to Russian ports in the Southern and Baltic basins. According to the market participants, it is necessary to build container ships of 3,000 TEU in capacity.
Other Alternatives
There are two alternatives – either to build ships ourselves or to get them in the world market. The business is currently using the second way but the cost of container ships has increased considerably over the past year: according to data previously announced by Andrey Severilov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of PAO Far Eastern Shipping Company (FESCO), the cost of container ships in 2022 increased 6-7 times. As for the construction of container ships in Russia, this task can be solved both by the shipyards of United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) when it comes to building small ships, and by a new shipyard on island Kotlin in St. Petersburg (Rosatom).
FESCO is looking into building 16 universal dry cargo container ships designed by Vympel at Kotlin shipyard. The shipyard will be able to build ships of large capacity. Rusatom Cargo earlier announced its plans to organize a container line on the Northern Sea Route. Under that project, CNIIPF recommended as a priority option a concept of the Arc8 class 6000teu Arctic container ship that would be outfitted with rudder propellers and powered by LNG.
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Source: Enportnews
