Russia to build over 1,000 vessels in 20 years

Russia’s United Shipbuilding Corporation is to build more than 1,000 commercial vessels in the next 20 years, Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, said when he recently chaired a meeting in St. Petersburg on the development of the shipbuilding industry.

He said the number includes 265 fishing vessels and 791 freighters. He added that Russian energy majors Gazprom and Rosneft plan to order another 307 vessels by 2030.

Putin said Russia’s shipbuilding industry needed comprehensive modernization, diversification, and the construction of new shipyards. Russia’s industry minister, Viktor Khristenko, said that domestic orders for civilian ships are expected to reach 680 billion rubles ($19 billion) by 2015 and that the volume of orders per year could triple compared with the current amount of annual orders which total some 30-35 billion rubles.

Some 160,000 people are employed at 168 shipbuilding facilities across Russia, most of which are located in the northwest of the country.