Page 40 - Журнал Sozvezdye Review - «СОЗВЕЗДИЕ» #42

ing for repairs after losing access to the European
shipyards, and many go to other Russian regions for
maintenance. The supply-demand gap is huge.
The market responds by further increasing the al-
ready high prices, driven by supply restrictions and
upward exchange rate. The cost of spare parts, equip-
ment, and repair services has increased two-fold on
average, with service performance taking longer time.
Ship owners are doing their best to cope, but the price
increase as high as this can’t but affect the scope and
schedule of their modernization plans.
The technological level of many ship repair pro-
viders leaves much to be desired. High-precision ma-
chining technologies are available to just a few of
them, while the need for complex parts and units is
increasing after Western sanctions put a stop to their
supply. And since many of these parts can’t be made
locally, it is highly desirable that shipyards set up ded-
icated design bureaus to be able to engineer all re-
quired items and start their serial production.
Workflow scheduling constitutes an issue of its
own. In the best case scenario, ship owners and re-
pairs providers should have a pre-agreed schedule,
under which the latter receive orders from the for-
mer a few months in advance so as to ensure all re-
quired components are in place before the start of
the repairs. The duration of repairs would be shorter
in this case, much to the satisfaction of the customer
and the contractor.
There is also a problem of personnel shortage. While
Russian yards can do quality hull works, they suffer
from the lack of competence in more technology-in-
tensive areas like electronics and engine construction.
The older generation nears the retirement age, and there
aren’t many younger experts to replace them.
One of the ways to catch up with the technolo-
gies available in Europe, as I see it, is be to use de-
fense technologies to the advantage of the civil engi-
neering market. The industries that serve the needs
of the Navy often have better equipment and compe-
tent teams, and the designs they engineer aren’t in-
ferior to those achieved abroad. Their application in
civil shipbuilding can benefit the industry and foster
import substitution.
For ship repair companies to overcome their chal-
lenges, they need more involvement from the state. In
conditions as challenging as today, and given the cur-
longer meets the current demand. rent lending power, no private business owner can af-
В Архангельской области Some ships have to idle for months ford to spend several billion on a dock or moderniza-
waiting for components.
предприятия, имеющие It is often impossible to pro- tion and then wait for years for returns.
в распоряжении доки для duce a Russian replacement in the Sergey Smirnov, Arkhangelsk Shipbuilding and
ремонта достаточно absence of design documentation. Marine Engineering Cluster, Director:
As to the Chinese counterparts,
Over its decades-long history, the seaport of
крупного судна, можно not all of them have proper quality. Arkhangelsk has been operating mostly as a carri-
пересчитать по пальцам One example is mechanical rubber er of export-bound sawn timber, pulp and paper and
Here in Arkhangelsk Oblast, items. Alongside matrix and mold, supplier of general cargoes to domestic projects in
it’s essential that they are made of
the Arctic –construction sites, infrastructure facili-
the yards with docks capable of quality rubber. ties, polar stations and Arctic localities. Sea carriages
The trouble of ship owners
accommodating fairly large ships doesn’t end at finally obtaining are being provided by the local shipping companies
can be counted on one hand spare parts in one way or another. with fleets of sea-going and river-sea vessels. They op-
erate in harsh climate and challenging economic con-
They need to make sure they can ditions.
pay for them, for they cost huge Commercial shipping led for the emergence in
amounts of money. The paths to change are probably Arkhangelsk Oblast of a service and repairs market
two. One is what we call the “Chinese way” and in- with players guided in provision of the services by
volves mere disassembly to measure the components commitments to, in order of priority, time, quality
SOZVEZDYE #42 and copy their design. The other path is to step away and price. One day of operating a chartered commer-
from single-piece production, as it is today, to full- cial bulk carrier costs the average is RUB 500,000.
scale, government-subsidized manufacture at an in- Demurrage or delays caused by failure of an onboard
развитие dustrial scale. Both of these paths should be covered system cause shipping companies significant expenses
development concurrently. and unwanted damages, requiring the local ship re-
pair providers to be highly efficient, competent, and
Mikhail Salynin, Northern Shipping Company, to use advanced technologies. I’d say that most of the
Operation and Maintenance Department Manager: local yards do meet these criteria, providing Arctic-
Here in Arkhangelsk Oblast, the yards with docks going ships with proper quality repairs. Although,
capable of accommodating fairly large ships can be just like everywhere else, there are those that do it
38 counted on one hand. Local ship owners are queue- better and those that need to level up.