St.Petersburg, September 7 (AVN) - Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Alexy II will arrive in St. Petersburg here on September 10 to consecrate the third Valdai universal bulk carrier that will be laid down by the local Severnaya Verf shipyard.
The lay-down ceremony will be attended by Viktor Cherkesov, President Vladimir Putin's envoy to the North-western federal district, Governors Vladimir Yakovlev of St. Petersburg and Valery Serdyukov of the Leningrad region, Metropolitan of St. Petersburg and Ladoga Vladimir, Deputy Transport Minister Nikolai Smirnov, Director General of the Russian Shipbuilding Agency Vladimir Pospelov, head of the New Programmes and Concepts holding company Boris Kuzyk, director general of the North-western steamship line Mikhail Lobin, officials of the Rosoboronexport state-owned arms trader, etc.
Severnaya Verf, which is a part of New Programmes and Concepts, is making Valdai bulk carriers at the order from the North-western steamship line, also a part of the holding company, a spokesman for the company told the Military News Agency. It is the first order from a Russian steamship line to a Russian shipyard to be financed by domestic money in the past 10 years. The Russian Savings Bank has undertaken to lend USD49m for the project implementation.
The contract between the shipyard and the steamship line envisages construction of 10 vessels and commissioning of one vessel in three months. If the contract is implemented successfully, five to six more orders a year may be placed with the shipyard. The first vessel named Svyatoi Apostol Andrei was laid down on January 26, 2001, and the second named Svyatoi Knyaz Vladimir on May 25. The third vessel will be named Svyatitel Alexy. The entire series is going to be named after Russian saints.
The Neva 2001 exhibition will host a presentation of Valdai bulk carriers for shipping companies on September 26. According to market researchers, the demand for river- and sea-going bulk carriers is growing among both domestic and foreign steamship lines. It guarantees the growth of domestic and international cargo flow. Export volume grew 18 to 20 percent a year in 1999 and 2000. Russian steamship lines will soon need 120 to 130 new vessels soon to mach the transportation demands, as over 50 percent of the current vessels are worn out. Some 200 river- and sea-going ships are to be written off.