Expensive, long, but high-quality: how fishing vessels are built in Russia

Fishing vessels in Russia are built with high quality, but their cost and construction time are significantly higher than abroad. This was announced by Konstantin Globenko, General Director of the Russian Fishery Company (RFC), at the Global Fishery Forum & Seafood Expo Russia.

The company has already built four trawlers at the "Admiralty Shipyards" and is satisfied with the quality of the vessels. Starting with the fifth vessel, the project had to be redesigned, replacing Western components with localized or supplied from friendly countries.

Nikolai Nazarenko, Deputy General Director for Fleet Development of the North-Western Fisheries Consortium, noted that the trawlers of the Vyborg Shipyard meet world standards. At the same time, the cost of construction in Russia is 1.6 times higher than in Turkey - $40 million against $25 million per vessel. In addition, there is a lag behind the agreed schedules.

Market participants identify several factors that increase the cost and slow down construction: high interest rates, the need to localize equipment, and bureaucratic procedures.

The supertrawlers being built for RFC are the largest and most technologically advanced Russian fishing vessels. Each is designed to catch more than 60 thousand tons of fish per year, which is 2.5 times higher than the productivity of most vessels of the Far Eastern fleet. Investments in a series of 10 vessels exceed 65 billion rubles.

The lead vessel of the series, "Captain Vdovichenko", was launched on March 27, 2020. The main characteristics of the ST-192 trawler: deadweight - 5700 tons, hold capacity - 5500 cubic meters, length - 108.2 m, width - 21 m, draft - 8.35 m, fuel autonomy - 45 days, crew - 139 people, full speed - 15 knots.

A series of four KMT01 project trawler-processors is being built at the Vyborg plant for JSC "Arkhangelsk Trawl Fleet": "Barents Sea", "Norwegian Sea", "White Sea" and "Kara Sea". The lead vessel "Barents Sea" was commissioned at the end of 2020, "Norwegian Sea" began fishing in December 2021, "White Sea" went fishing in July 2023. According to Nazarenko, the delivery of the fourth vessel will be delayed by about five years.

Read more materials on the topic:

• Trawler-processor "Captain Sokolov" was built at the Northern Shipyard
• Shipbuilders of the Admiralty Shipyards are building supertrawlers "Captain Yunak" and "Mechanic Shcherbakov"
• To protect the Russian Arctic and ships on the Northern Sea Route: Russia is building new military bases and warships