Page 33 - Журнал Sozvezdye Review - «СОЗВЕЗДИЕ» #38

Alongside with repairs, the team have expertise in
modernization and conversion of ships. Some of the
projects use customized design developed by the com-
pany.
“The geography of our clients is expanding,” says An-
ton Krushelnitsky. “In addition to the companies based
Arkhangelsk Oblast (Northern Shipping Company, Arc-
tic Shipping Company, Northern Inland Shipping Com-
pany, Bunker Company Arkhangelsk, Trans-Fleet), we
now have clients based in other regions (Khatanga MTP,
Valkur, Pomor-Service, among others). I can say that we
now serve as a maintenance provider to the Arctic coast-
al fleet. Our capacity allows for the repairs to be done on
various types of ships. Also, our teams can travel to per-
form repairs onsite. Our growing performance enables
our upgrading plans, which include modernization of
the premises and purchase of machine tools and other
equipment. One recent acquisition is the mobile painting
unit for use at customer sites. Since this winter, we are
licensed for ship breaking and disposal. We have a ded-
icated team for this and equipment. Importantly, none
of the purchases have been made using borrowed funds.
We invest our profits in our growth.”
Слип Г-300, находящийся в собственности
Resources and personnel
Архангельской РЭБ флота, позволяет проводить
On a long-term horizon, the company intends to доковый ремонт судов весом до 2500 тонн, длиной до 130
grown into a full-service provider with operations from метров и осадкой до 3,5 метров
ship design development to ship launch. This means
that FRMB pushes out the boundaries of its core busi- SLIP G-300, possessed by FRMB as property, offers dock
ness into shipbuilding. And it has competencies, exper- repairs to vessels weighing up to 2500 tons, with length of up
tise and technical capabilities for this. Its covered berth to 130 meters and draught up to 3.5 meters
for allows to build ships up to 90 meters long and up to
16 meters wide. With slipways for assembling hull units
and manufacturing plane sections, the berth operates at
a mere 20% capacity. Along with other specialized sites,
FRMB operates hull welding shop with plasma cutting
jig and mechanical assembly shops.
The interest from customers is growing as FRMB gets
hired by the larger shipyards to engineer ships, barges,
pontoons, floating bridges and floating berths. Its team
have years of experience in delivering projects also to the
European market: since 1988 FRMB has built thirty ves-
sels – pontoons boats, fishing trawlers, chemical tanker
hulls – for customers in Holland, Germany and Norway.
FRMB has a plan to evolve into a yard with the en-
tire range of services in shipbuilding and ship repair in-
dustry. A vessel built by FRMB will be able to receive
maintenance and repair from its mother shipyard – this
scheme looks simplest and most convenient to custom-
ers.
Achieving these goals requires not only technologi-
cally advanced facilities, but also a sufficient team. While
two years ago FRMB had around 120 employees, its cur-
rent staff is 230.
Anton Krushelnitsky:
“We have managed to build a solid team of qualified
people. We have achieved it by giving individual atten-
tion to the needs of every single employee. What we of-
fer people is the opportunity to work and earn, to grow
professionally and advance in their careers. If we see that
employees have motivation, we can arrange for advanced
training at company’s expense. We are working to im-
prove comfort at work: we have recently renovated the
dining room and are now doing repairs on the person-
nel facilities. And we also support the school with many
of our employees’ children as students. There’s an incen-
tive fund and a free hostel for our younger employees.”
Also, FRMB envisages creating an in-house train-
ing facility. The idea was first discussed at the personnel
training round table, held in Arkhangelsk last autumn,
and was supported by industries, vocational schools and
regional government. Relevant agreements with Arkhan-
gelsk Ministry of Education are already in place. Once
the training facility is up and running, many of the chal-
lenges in the shipbuilding and ship repair training will
be tackled, while FRMB can expect a sufficient skill pool
to turn itself into the heart of shipbuilding for the Arctic.