KEEL IS LAID FOR NEW NOREBO TRAWLER

Keel is laid for new Norebo trawler – The keel has been laid at St Petersburg’s Northern Shipyard for a new state-of-the-art factory trawler for Norebo, one of Russia’s largest companies involved in the harvesting, processing and transportation of fish.  This important occasion was attended by officials and guests from the Federal Agency for Fisheries, the Government of St. Petersburg and Murmansk region, and the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping. Also present were representatives of other Russian shipyards, the senior management of Norebo and of other companies.

The vessel is named Captain Sokolov in honour of Vladimir Sokolov (1954-2015) who graduated from the Murmansk Maritime Academy before joining the Murmansk Trawl Fleet.  His professional career led him from seaman, to the master of fishing vessels, and later a head of Murmansk Fishing Port. He also worked as a deputy head of the Federal Agency for Fisheries.

It will take roughly two years to complete the Captain Sokolov, the first of six vessels to be built in St Petersburg under this contract.  The five trawlers which follow will be built faster and will be delivered before 2022 to Norebo’s fishing companies in the Northwest Russia Karat-1 JSC, Alternative JSC, Karelian Seafood JSC and Murmansk Region Fleet JSC.

The design of the new trawler is based on project 170701 developed by Icelandic design company Nautic, one of the Knarr Maritime companies, and adapted to the requirements of the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping by the St. Petersburg-based Nautic-Rus design department.

The new trawler will have a capsule-type hull of 81.6 meters in length and 16 meters in width.

The fish processing plant will provide an overall production capacity of 150 metric tons per day, including more than 21 metric tons of a wide variety of cod and haddock fillets, and around seven metric tons of fishmeal per day.

The freezing equipment will have capacity of more than 60 metric tons of product per day and the cold storage capacity will provide storage of up to 1,200 metric tons of frozen fish products or combined storage of 1,020 metric tons of fish products and 334 metric tons of fishmeal. Besides the vessel will able to produce and store up to 97 metric tons of canned fishery products (cod liver etc.).

Ilya Shestakov, the head of the Federal Agency for Fisheries, said when opening the ceremony: “We will start building of 40 fishing vessels in two years in Russia. It is a breakthrough of our country but this vessel is special for us as it is named in honour of our friend and our teacher Vladimir Sokolov.”

Vitaly Orlov, Norebo’s owner and director said that laying of the keel for this first vessel is a great event for the company and the country. “Although Norebo’s current fishing fleet is up-to-date, the time to renew is coming. We spent a great deal of time and effort in choosing both the design of the vessel and the shipyard.  Today is a very emotional moment when we lay the keel of the first vessel. I hope that this event today will give a positive signal to the shipbuilding industry that Russia intends to build vessels that are as good as, or even better, than shipyards anywhere in the world.  Norebo, a large Russian company, intends to support Russian shipbuilding.  We also want to continue a good tradition to call the vessels after the people who made a great contribution into development of the fishing industry in Russia as Vladimir Sokolov used to be.”

Vladimir Grigoryev, the CEO of Rybprominvest said: “We’ve set goal to make an ambitious and unique project and I’m sure we will succeed. Everything captured by this vessel at sea will be processed. This is an innovative project. We’ve analysed all recently developed technologies within fishing industry in the world and decided to use them in this vessel. For instance, the vessel will be able to operate three trawl gears, it will have a large fish processing factory producing a great variety of fishery products”.

The trawlers will be built under the supervision of the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping. Mikhail Kuteev, the director of the Baltic Branch of the Register explained: “Todays trawlers are high-tech vessels equipped with complex equipment. Project 170701 is an excellent example of an innovative approach to ship design. The designers created a brand-new architecture. Due to the capsule-type bow outline and a unique construction of haul the trawler will have improved seagoing capacities and increased working area”.

Igor Ponomarev, the CEO of the Northern Shipyard assured that “this vessel will be built on time in accordance with the timeline and obligations of the shipyard”. He added that the Northern Shipyard systematically increases the share civil vessel projects: “In 2020 our capacity utilization for civil projects will exceed 40%. This year we laid keels for three fishing vessels. Next year we plan to start building four fishing vessels. In the coming years we plan to build nine vessels under two projects and we hope that the number of orders will increase. This development became possible after the Government adopted a number of crucial regulations aimed at support of Russian companies and we welcome such changes”.

Today Norebo owns 45 vessels operating in Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Last year Norebo signed contracts with the Northern Shipyard for building of six factory trawlers to be used in North Atlantic and now consider to increase the order with 3-4 vessels that will renew Norebo’s fleet in the Russian Far East region. The commissioning of new trawlers will increase economic and production efficiency of Norebo and will increase supply of more value-added products such as fillets, mince, fishmeal and other products delivered both to Russia and foreign markets. the new vessels will also be more economical, safe and comfortable for the crew.