Russia is investing in shipbuilding on a grand scale, by Olga Samofalova for VZGLYAD. 06.18.2023.
Russia is implementing an ambitious project on the sea and rivers.
The next five years will be landmark for civil shipbuilding. The state is ready to invest colossal funds for a multiple increase in the number of sea and river vessels built. Over the past ten years, 100 ships have been produced, and in the next five years it is planned to build about 260 ships. This will not only help the entire shipbuilding industry in the country to rise, but will also expand Russia's opportunities for trade with friendly countries.
“In the next five years, we will significantly upgrade the merchant fleet. The Ministry of Industry and Trade has already made changes to the large-scale shipbuilding program. To implement it, we will attract funds from the National Wealth Fund,” said President Vladimir Putin, speaking at the SPIEF plenary session. “I would like to note that only within the framework of this program in 2023-2028, it is planned to build at least 260 ships at Russian shipyards,” the head of state stressed.
To do this, at the beginning of the year, an investment order was created from the state for the construction of these 260 ships. The total investment will amount to 231 billion rubles, of which 136 billion rubles will come from the National Welfare Fund. The initiator and executor of the project is the State Transport Leasing Company (STLC).
This is an extremely ambitious task. For comparison: since 2013, STLC has ordered the construction of 157 domestic ships, and only one hundred of them have already been transferred to shipping companies (mostly commercial ships).
That is, in ten years only 100 ships were built, while over the next five years the plan is to assemble 260 ships, that is, 2.6 times more.
It is assumed that thanks to this investment project, the industry will undergo a profound transformation - it is necessary to carry out import substitution, acquire the necessary competencies in terms of components and component base, increase production efficiency and introduce modern management methods, while increasing the volume of production.
The importance of bringing civil shipbuilding in Russia to a qualitatively new level is indicated by the fact that the state is ready to allocate funds from the National Welfare Fund for these projects.
The renewal of the country's fleet is necessary, among other things, in the context of the new geopolitical situation and the reorientation of trade relations from Europe to Asia.
“The construction of ships is also important because the reorientation to trade with the countries of the East and the South was announced earlier, and water transport plays a big role here. For example, one of the main routes of the international North-South transport corridor passes through several water bodies, and more ships will be needed here in the coming years,” says Dmitry Baranov, leading expert of Finam Management. As part of the implementation of the North-South transport corridor, which connects Russia with Iran and further with India, the volume of export traffic is planned to double by 2025, and triple by 2030. According to EDB analysts, the additional cargo flow along the corridor in three years will amount to 5-7 million tons of export and 2-7 million tons of import cargo. By 2030, it will grow to 14.6 million tons in the base scenario, and up to 24.7 million tons in the optimistic one. Basically, we are talking about the supply of grain and containerized cargo. Mikhail Mishustin previously called approximately the same figures - an increase in freight traffic by 2030 by 135% to 32.5 million tons (by all modes of transport).
Previously, the potential of this corridor was not fully used, since there were routes through the ports of the Baltic and Azov-Black Sea basins, but in the new geopolitical situation, Russia needs to expand the geography of transportation by any new routes.
“Western sanctions hit not only air traffic with “unfriendly” countries and road transport, but also affected maritime transport. At the same time, new transport corridors are being formed, for example, Europe-Turkey-Azerbaijan-Dagestan. It carries part of the cargo that was previously delivered to Russia through the Baltic States and Poland-Belarus. The importance of the eastern direction is also growing - in the near future, the flow of goods from China directly and through Kazakhstan will also grow significantly,” says a leading specialist of the Center for Information Communications of the PRUE. Plekhanova Arina Redko.
For understanding: out of 260 ships that are going to be built in the next five-year period, 119 cargo ships, 73 passenger ships, 10 fishing ships, 27 dredging ships (needed for navigable rivers), 1 floating dock, 5 large-tonnage and 5 tugboats, 20 barges.
“Cargo ships can be both for liquid cargo, and for bulk, piece, containers and others. Passenger ships are needed primarily for the development of domestic tourism, and various equipment is needed for the arrangement of waterways,” says Baranov.
At the same time, commercial, tourist or fishing companies are offered attractive financial conditions for leasing vessels. The key conditions are a “zero” down payment, a preferential rate from 2.93% to 7.6% depending on the type of vessel, the lease term is up to 25 years.
“In general, this is a serious challenge, but the task is real and meaningful. Competition in some positions is rather weak, but industry associations and large enterprises from other industries see how actively shipbuilding is developing, how the number of ships under construction is growing, and the demand for fleet and related equipment is increasing. Of course, to saturate the market as quickly as possible with analogues of equipment that was stopped being supplied due to sanctions is a top priority. And the new subsidies should help to complete the construction of ships that are under construction and have certain difficulties due to non-delivery of equipment and the lack of analogues of Russian origin,” Redko believes.
State spending on the development of civil shipbuilding is an important supporting mechanism for the growth of the country's industry and economy.
“Firstly, orders for the creation of marine and river equipment will support manufacturers and ensure the modernization and sustainability of the entire industry. Secondly, orders for the construction of ships will provide employment for employees and allow enterprises to maintain their competencies in shipbuilding. Thirdly, the creation of courts in the country will increase the proceeds from the export of complex products, improve the safety of navigation. Fourthly, ships will need a significant amount of various equipment, parts and assemblies, and shipyards will order all this mainly within the country,” says Bananov. Moreover, not only shipbuilders themselves, but also many related enterprises will benefit from the project. It is important that there is competition between different shipyards, then they will be able to build faster and cheaper, plus it is important to control costs at each stage so that funds are not wasted.
https://vz.ru/economy/2023/6/18/1216976.html
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