A new plant for the production of ship engines will appear in the Astrakhan region. The project is being implemented by Vasily Semenov, co-owner and general director of the St. Petersburg company BaltProekt, who headed Kit Shipbuilding Lotos JSC, created for these purposes. The company is registered in the Lotos special economic zone in the Narimanov district of the region.
According to Semenov, the plant will produce engines for shipbuilding and coastal energy. At the first stage, it is planned to produce four lines of medium-speed engines with a capacity of 700 to 4500 kW — it is planned to produce about 100 units per year with the possibility of increasing the volume to 200 with the growth of orders. These capacities should cover the needs of medium shipbuilding and more than half of the requests of coastal energy in terms of generation.
The project was first presented in the fall of 2025 at the Neva exhibition, where BaltProekt signed an agreement with the Chinese company Ningbo C.S.I. Power & Machinery Group. It was then reported that serial production was planned to be launched in 2027 with the participation of the international consortium KIT Shipbuilding. The investment volume is estimated at 2.5 billion rubles, and, according to Semenov, the funds are completely private, and the shareholders of the new enterprise are citizens of Russia.
The plant will be a full-cycle assembly enterprise, and its products must comply with government decree No. 719, which regulates the criteria for Russian industrial products. The businessman stressed that the priority will be a phased increase in localization, including the use of domestic components.
The choice of the site in the Astrakhan region is associated with a favorable geographical location — proximity to the Caspian Sea and convenient logistics for shipbuilding enterprises. In addition, residents of the Lotos special economic zone receive tax benefits and access to engineering infrastructure, which makes the project economically attractive.
