The Admiralty Shipyard in St Petersburg has begun cutting steel for the fourth in the series of supertrawlers being built for the Russian Fishery Company. The trawler’s keel will be laid next summer and completion is scheduled for 2022.
‘We have received once more clear confirmation that a large-scale, technologically complex, newbuild project is being implemented according to the planned timelines. As this modern and highly efficient fleet for RFC takes shape, the Admiralty Shipyard, with the support of our company’s specialists, is gaining unique experience in civil shipbuilding,’ said RFC CEO Viktor Litvinenko.
The series of ten vessels being built at the Admiralty Shipyards will be commissioned from 2021 onwards. These trawlers are being built in pairs, with two vessels a year scheduled, roughly three months apart.
The first vessel in the series is on the slipway and 40% complete, while the second is 30% complete as installation of systems is in progress and the launch of the first vessel is expected to take place in the spring.
The new RFC trawlers are designed to handle an annual catch of around 60,000 tonnes, roughly double the capacity of the company’s present fleet of trawlers.
RFC plans to install waste-free processing of the entire catch and production of high-value pollock fillets and surimi on board, with a significantly higher capacity to produce value-added products than the current vessels are capable of.
The ten trawlers are being at the Admiralty Shipyards for RFC under the state investment quotas initiative and the overall investment by RFC is more than 65 billion rubles.
