ST.PETERSBURG. March 26 (Interfax-AVN) - The Baltiysky Zavod shipyard, one of Russia's largest ship-building enterprises, has launched a large-scale upgrade of its production facilities, technical director of the plant Yury Rybalchenko told reporters on Tuesday.
The project is now being pursued in parallel with implementing foreign and domestic orders for military ships of various types and purpose, as well as for vessels powered with nuclear powerplants.
Modernization of production facilities is to be carried out in four stages. The fist phase provides for building a hull shop with roofed steel storage facilities. Rybalchenko said that no similar shops had been built in Russia and Europe before. The facilities would enable the enterprise to process 60,000 tonnes of metal roll a year. As many as 50 % of the output capabilities will be used in the year 2003, completion of the project scheduled for 2004. The result is that larger steel sheets will be used for building ships, their dimensions being twelve meters by three meters. The length of the sheet now employed at the enterprise is eight meters only. Use of sheets with greater dimension will reduce the number of welding operations.
The second phase of the modernization envisages construction of a two-bay berth, its length mounting to 55 meters and width to 52 meters. The third stage provides for reconstruction of the head berth; a dry dock is to be built in the course of the fourth stage.
Investments of some USD340m are necessary for the project, the construction of the dry dock not excluded.
In reply to a question from Interfax-Military News Agency Rybalchenko said that the implementation of the first two stages of the project will bring about a 25 % cut in vessel construction terms.
The problem of the fourth stage is yet to be solved, though. Once the height of the berth is going to be more than 70 meters, corresponding permission for constructing the facilities is to be obtained from the local authorities.
Rybalchenko said that the plant had not been modernized for 10 years; the enterprise is now to implement the modernization project using own funds. Speaking of the advantages to be gained in the wake of the modernization, Rybalchenko mentioned the unified production cycle, high level of automation and mechanization and automated control and planning system.
Seven nuclear ice-breakers and four nuclear cruisers for the Russian Navy have been constructed at the plant. In 2001, the enterprise won the Gold Idea competition organized by the Russian committee on military and technical cooperation with foreign states.