Russia Signs Almost $3 Billion in Shipbuilding Deals

In the second day of St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Russia’s largest shipbuilder, United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), signed a joint venture agreement with South Korea’s STX Shipbuilding to build a new $1.8 billion shipyard at Novo-Admiralteysky in Saint Petersburg to meet the maritime transport needs of liquefied natural gas from Russian fields in the arctic and subarctic shelf.

At the Forum, Roman Trotsenko, the head of the Russian state-owned company commented that STX will acquire 25 percent of the St. Petersburg shipyard and will provide the technical oversight of the state-funded project.

On the same day, USC announced they had entered into a $1 billion agreement with Sovcomflot (SCF), the world’s largest operator of ice-class vessels, to construct up to 4 seismic survey vessels.

“This high cost of the project”, Mr. Trotsenko explained, “is due to increased complexity of ships and technologies of their manufacture.”

According to First Deputy General Director of SCF”Eugene Ambrosova “cutting metal for ships will begin next year and the first ship will be ready within two years after the start of construction.”