Russia is in great need for fleet renovation, from nuclear-powered icebreakers to river ships. Newbuilding orders are being placed numerously due to state support measures but private shipyard tend to be driven out of the market.

Russia’s fishery segment embarks on large scale fleet renovation. German Zverev, President of the All-Russian Association of Fishing Industry, Businessmen and Exporters, tells IAA PortNews about this process and challenges thereof.

Russia’s backlog of orders for construction of fishing ships at domestic shipyards is a breakthrough over the recent 20 years. Local content of materials is as high as 90% while a big job is to be done in the segment of equipment so that it was replaced with products of Russian origin.

Bunkering market of Big Port St. Petersburg is stable and the number of oil spills is decreasing. This segment is facing the creation of infrastructure for LNG bunkering and development of new terminals. Harbour Master’s Service of the port tells IAA PortNews about the situation in the bunkering market of Saint-Petersburg.

New Customs Code of EAEU came into effect on 1 January 2018 to replace the Customs Code of the Customs Union. When speaking at the XIV International Transport Forum “Yug-Transshipment-2018”, Sergey Sokolov, Adviser for Customs Formalities and Customs Control, Department of Customs Legislation and Law Enforcement Practice, told about changes streamlining customs procedures.

Russian shipbuilding and shipping industries are going through very interesting times: on the one hand, they should integrate more closely with the Eurasian space and follow the global technological trends; on the other hand they have to escape dependence on foreign manufacturers.

In the first quarter of 2018, Black Sea container terminals of Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Georgia and Bulgaria handled 732,948 TEUs including empty containers and excluding transshipment.

Olga Sarkova, Director General of OOO Industrial Safety Systems, tells IAA PortNews about practical application of new requirements on oil spill response plans (OSR plans) which came into effect on 7 November 2017 for oil transshipment and bunkering operations.

Shipyards of Russia are not equally loaded so far. Considerable number of potential orders will let ensure a well balanced loading. State leasing companies representing an important instrument to finance newbuildings provide for construction of almost all commercial ships.

RF Navy’s Northern Fleet has successfully completed ice tests of the newest icebreaker Ilya Muromets. It took 19 days for the ship to perform the test ptogramme in the water areas of the Barents and Kara seas, in ice fields of different thickness and density.