Russian fishing firm Mag-Sea International announced it will establish a shipyard for the construction and repair of crab-fishing vessels in Primorski krai, a region in the Russian Far East.
The project will be implemented in partnership with Chinese Dalian Shipbuilding Construction company (DSIC), with the goal of narrowing the gap between growing demand for vessels of this type in Russia and available supply.
The plans by Mag-Sea International were voiced by the company’s CEO, Mikhail Kotov, during his meeting with Primorski krai Governor Oleg Kozhemyako. Kotov said Mag-Sea and DCIS were looking for a site in the region to organize their production and repair facilities.
Kotov said a lack of shipyards in Russia capable of building new vessels and doing repair at quality levels and at prices commensurate with those of foreign players instigated the move.
“We are now finishing the building of a modern crab fishing vessel in China, it will be ready for operation in July this year. The price will be no higher than USD 15 million [EUR 13.2 million] – that’s twice as less as it would cost in Russia,” Kotov said during the meeting with the governor, according to a press release from Kozhemyako’s office. “We are going to build vessels of this sort in Russia.”
In an interview with MagadanMedia agency, Kotov said local plants in the region currently provide repair and maintenance services at a quality level which doesn’t always meet customers’ needs. Therefore the company is faced with the difficult decision of either transporting their ships to other parts of Russia for repair, or facing long periods of downtime.
“It’s useless to wait for something real in terms of value and quality from state-owned companies,” he said in the interview. “We designed a ship which would meet all our needs and wanted it built at a shipyard in Russia, but commercial conditions of the shipyard didn’t suit us. While the price in Russia would be EUR 30 million [USD 33.9 million], in China it was up to USD 15 million [EUR 13.2 million]. You see the difference is enormous.”
Mag-Sea International initiated the joint venture with DSIC, and sometime after the start of the building process, Mag-Sea decided to reorganize its Russian production facilities around the new project, Kotov said.
“It would be cheaper for us to have the Russian government build such a shipyard at the expense of the federal budget, but it would take too much time. We need our fleet upgraded now,” Kotov said.
Kotov said Mag-Sea will build five new ships at the new shipyard. Other fishing companies from throughout the Russian Far East also expressed interest in having ships built at the yard, he said.
More than 60 fishing companies operate nearly 100 vessels in the crab fishery in Russia’s Far East. In 2018, they collectively caught 93,500 MT of crab. Most of the vessels in the fishery are 30 or more years old – with some dating back to Soviet times.
Photo courtesy of Magadan Regional Duma
