It will be headed, at the suggestion of First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, by Alexander Burutin, presidential adviser for military technology and industry. The decree stipulates establishment of three regional sub-holdings: the Northern one on the basis the Severodvinsk facilities, the Western one, in which St.
Petersburg and Kaliningrad shipyards will be used, and the Far Eastern one.
All of them, including their research and development assets, will be controlled by USC, the parent company. All the state-owned shipbuilding assets and stakes in private companies will make up the USC production basis.
The Industry and Energy Ministry, instructed to reshape the shipbuilding industry, will draw on the experience of the United Aircraft Corporation.
USC is being established because Russian shipbuilding is in a critical state. Today it is incapable to occupy an appropriate place on the world market and even to hold its ground on the domestic one.
The starting conditions for restoring Russia’s status as a great marine power are difficult, as Russia’s share in the total deadweight of all ships ordered for construction is merely 0.6% of the world shipbuilding market.
“The deadweight of commercial ships built for Russian shipowners abroad over the past decade is 94.4% of the total, which is close to complete dependence on import,” the president said.
A corporation like USC is needed not only because Russian merchant marine and shipbuilding industry are in a poor state, but also because the demand for shipping services has been growing every year. Russia’s Transport Ministry said the demand would reach 650 mln metric tons by 2015. Experts of energy giant Gazprom and state-run oil company Rosneft have estimated that the development of the northern offshore deposits alone will require 20 new iceresistant platforms and terminals, 10 or 12 icebreakers and 60 liquefied gas carriers.
But this is far from Russia’s complete demand for specialised commercial ships.
“The Russian shipbuilding industry has major production and research facilities, really high technologies, and strong positions in some areas, especially on the market of military shipbuilding” for satisfying this demand, the president said.
USC cannot develop without assistance.
"Structural measures are needed in the government’s support for shipbuilding, above all tax procedures to stimulate a revival of Russian shipbuilding at least at the stage of establishing a holding company," Putin said. "Reasonable state protectionism is used in many countries.
Why should Russia be an exception?" the president asked.
Preliminary estimates show that the government is prepared to provide up to $10 bln from the federal budget to develop national shipbuilding to world standards.
The Energy and Industry Ministry has proposed encouraging the demand for ships made in Russia. Its head, Viktor Khristenko, recently signed a document, according to which a tender will be held among shipbuilding companies to select leasing projects for building ships to order. Invitations to participate in the tender have already been sent to several leasing and shipbuilding companies. But some of them have responded to the idea sceptically.
The big potential customers – Russia’s major shipping companies Sovcomflot, Novoship and the Far Eastern Shipping Company (FESCO) – may refuse to make a deal. Their main argument is that loans granted by Western banks are cheaper, while Russian shipyards are technologically lagging far behind South Korea and China, not to mention Europe.
These arguments are hard to dispute but, as far as technologies are concerned, Russian shipyards are still considered the best builders of modern warships, and their specific technologies may tomorrow be used by USC.
Ideas to adopt legislation on ports are brewing in the Russian government.
“Today we have only one port, Primorsk, which meets the international standards of receiving ships and handling cargo, and none of our ports is guaranteed against an illegal shipment of cargo,” Sergei Ivanov said.
He recalled a joke in this context: “Give me just one metre of an uncontrolled border, and I will become rich as Rockefeller.” Russian ports today have kilometres of technically equipped but poorly controlled moorages for the shipment of millions of tons of cargo both ways. It is there that we must put things right, the first deputy prime minister said.
