MOSCOW. Jan 3 (Interfax-AVN) - The Severnaya Verf shipyard located in St. Petersburg will build two destroyers that will be supplied to China under the contract signed on Thursday, a competent source close to the Russian government administration told Interfax-Military News Agency.
Destroyers of Project 956EM (export-oriented, modernized) were developed by the Northern Design and Projecting Bureau located in St. Petersburg, the source said. They will be built and delivered to the customer in four years. The value of the contract makes about USD1bn.
The Severnaya Verf shipyard, an integral part of the Moscow- based New Programs and Concepts holding company, has implemented a Chinese contract before. It built two destroyers of Project 956E and handed them over to the Chinese Naval Forces from 1997 to 2000.
The contract on the supplies of two Russian destroyers to the Chinese People's Liberation Army was signed at the main office of the Rosoboronexport state-owned arms trader in Moscow. Russia was represented by Rosoboronexport First Deputy Director General Sergei Chemezov and China by Zhou Wei, deputy head of the purchase bureau in the Chinese army's main department of armament and materiel.