Page 13 - Журнал Sozvezdye Review - «СОЗВЕЗДИЕ» #39

High North and the Northern Supply Haul and in- In these circumstances, from 2022 onwards
frastructure projects running the risk of disrupted Arkhangelsk’s ship repair providers are expected to
timelines. experience a sharp increase in the demand for their
Conducted by the shipbuilding cluster, the survey services from dry cargo carriers and tanker ships.
of Arkhangelsk-based transport companies’ needs in Scheduled repairs and classification surveys will be
the repair of cargo carriers, icebreakers and tug boats, sought in 2022–2023 by as many as one hundred Arc-
has shown a persistent shortage of the dock facilities tic-going ships with particulars enabling entry to the
which seems to remain until 2024, much to the dis- seaport of Arkhangelsk.
satisfaction of shipowners. Receiving the repairs at The situation calls for urgent increase in shipyards’
Arkhangelsk Oblast’s shipyards are only a quarter of docking capacity and technical capability. For this pur-
the Arctic-going ships. What aggravates the situation pose, the Arkhangelsk Oblast Ministry of Economic
is the fact that under sanctions pressure many coun- Development, Industry and Research has teamed up
tries (and among them Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Ger- with the local shipbuilding cluster and its member ship-
many and Norway) deny repairs to the Russian ships, ping companies for a roadmap to expand the area’s ship
while Turkey and Indonesia have increased repairs repair capacity. There is a plan to apply the Russia Min-
prices in pursuit of economic gain. As to shipyards in istry of Commerce and Industry for federal support for
St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad, these are overloaded modernization and expansion of the local docking ca-
with orders. pacity, using a 15-year lease mechanism.

Sergey Smirnov, timely and quality manner thanks to the coopera-
Director at “Arkhangelsk Oblast tive ties between its yards. This approach enables
Shipbuilding and Marine shorter service delivery time and better cost-re-
Engineering Cluster” Association: duction, contributing to higher competitiveness of
Arkhangelsk-based ship repair and related ser- the yards. Another example is the Soviet practice
vices providers, components manufacturers and when shipping companies and ship repair provid-
spare parts suppliers form an integral part of Rus- ers teamed up for the delivery of orders of nation-
sian Arctic’s maritime transport system. It’s a lot al importance. If we want Arkhangelsk Oblast to
of responsibility repairing and servicing the mer- reach its full potential as a shipbuilding and ship
chant and supply ships hired by Arctic petroleum repair center, we should be able to apply not only
and infrastructure projects, as well as the ice- best available technologies, but also best manage- SOZVEZDYE #39
breakers and auxiliary vessels, for these are pre- rial solutions.
requisite to ensuring the navigation safety within In the context of the sanctions policy, the role
the basins of the Arctic seas and river waterways of Russian shipyards continues to gain in impor-
and, primarily, the Northern Sea Route. tance. It is essential that the quality of our service судостроение
It is impossible to ignore the importance of meets the world’s best standards. I hope that this shipbuilding
staying customer-oriented, competitive and coop- inevitable necessity to re-orient towards domestic
erative. Let me cite here the example of the Turkish market, caused by our new reality, will stimulate
port of Tuzla. With several dozen shipyards with domestic ship repair providers to increase capac-
floating docks, Tuzla manages to meet the dock- ity and channel their proceeds into modernization
ing needs of hundreds of shipping companies in a and state-of-the-art technologies. 11