Russia’s national crab fishing and shipbuilding industries have hit an important milestone as the country’s first crab-processing vessel was floated out.
The crab vessel Vaigach was launched at the Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia-based Krasnoe Sormovo shipyard in July 2022. The vessel is being built under the crab investment-quota program for the North Western Fishery Consortium, a Russian seafood conglomerate specializing in fishing a variety of species and the manufacturing of semi-finished and finished products.
The Vaigach is the first of five crabbers booked to be built for the company. It is also the first crabber built by Krasnoe Sormovo and the first crabber built by the shipyard, and in Russia, that has full production-cycle capabilities installed on board – from catch to storage to processing and finished product. Prior to the latest effort, the company bought ships of this type from Turkey-based Tersan, according to Sudostroenie.
The design of the Vaigach was developed at Russia’s Marine Engineering Bureau. The vessel is 61.9 meters long, with a beam of 15 meters. It is designed to harvest crab at depths between 20 and 400 meters, with a daily processing capacity up to 60 metric tons (MT) of king crab and 30 MT of opilio crab, and a capacity to produce 40 MT of king crab and 20 MT of opilio crab as finished products.
The vessel is equipped with a 1,000-cubic-meter freezer, Kommersant reported, and is capable of transfering its catch at sea to a transport ship even in gale conditions.
According to the press service of Krasnoe Sormovo, the Vaigach is now 80 percent complete. Final outfitting will be made on the water, followed by running tests on the vessel in the Gulf of Finland, near the waters where the ship will be operating. It is scheduled to be fully completed and handed over to the North Western Fishery Consortium in 2023.
A second ship of its type is already under construction. The fleet is going to be deployed in the Barents Sea, Norwegian Sea, and Greenland Sea. Kommersant estimated the value of the crab vessel at between EUR 30 million to EUR 32 million (USD 30.6 million to USD 32.64 million).
Russian Vice Premier and Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov called on the country's shipbuilders to continue their efforts to meet the schedule of the investment quota program, as “demand from our fisheries for new equipment is rising,” the ministry’s press service said.
Photo courtesy of United Shipbuilding Corporation
