Construction is underway of a new trawler for fishing pelagic species in the Baltic at the Interfarm Construction Base at Svetly in Kaliningrad using design and engineering work carried out by local company Adomat, which previously managed the reconstruction of another local vessel, Kapitan Lobanov.
The keel-laying ceremony was attended by the region’s governor Anton Alikhanov, who commented that construction of fishing vessels is again taking place in Kaliningrad for the first time since the Soviet era.
‘Today we are taking a new step. For all of us, it has been clear that modernisation is an intermediate stage, not a transition to the next level. So the regional government decided to support the construction of new vessels. We are implementing a programme whereby we are ready with subsidies of up to 30% of the cost of building fishing vessels. This is our main focus on today,’ Anton Alikhanov said.
This new 27.14 metre overall, 8.60 metre breadth seiner/trawler is built for fishing company Marfish, and is intended for year-round operation on pelagic species in Baltic waters. The investment amounts to 262 million rubles (€3.5 million).
‘We have been working on this project for the last four years, and I hope that we can see a series of new vessels replacing the old fleet,’ said Marfish representative Nikolai Nechai.
The new trawler will have carrying capacity of 200 cubic metre, four times the capacity of existing vessels, and it is expected to be able to land around 10000 tonnes a month.
‘This is the third such project for our company, but the first time we have worked on a vessel on this scale,’ said Adomat director Oleg Martens.
‘This vessel is designed specifically for Baltic conditions, but if a customer requested it, this could just as easily be modified for the Black Sea or even for northern waters.’
A regional budget for a long-tern modernisation of fishing and coastal facilities in Kaliningrad amounted to 76.4 million rubles (€1 million) in 2018 and this has risen to 87.2 million rubles (€1.20 million) in 2019. Three new fishing vessels were built in Kaliningrad in 2017 and last year two were built and the plans for a new vessel were developed.
‘The first modernisation project was Kapitan Lobanov, which we are very proud of,’ said Alexandr Gavrilov of the Interfarm Construction Base.
‘Now there are high requirements for fishing vessels in terms of endurance, economy, comfort and, most importantly, delivery of high quality catches. There are challenges ahead of us, and now we have taken on the order for the construction of a new trawler that we intend to complete to a high standard and on time,’ he said.
