How Deep will We Go?

The scope of dredging works at water areas of Russia will total some 30 mln cbm in 2016 and is expected to remain at this level next year. Only half of dredging operations is performed by the fleet of FSUE Rosmorport with the rest of works done by contractors.

The series is completed

Krasnoye Sormovo shipyard (based in Nizhny Novgorod, part of United Shipbuilding Corporation) has completed the series of three TSHDs 1000 built for FSUE Rosmorport with the launching of the third ship, named Kadosh, held on 5 October 2016. The vessel is to be delivered to the customer by the end of 2016.

The first ship of the series, the Sommers, intended for the North-Western Branch of FSUE Rosmorport, had to be deployed for operation at port Makhachkala (the Caspian Sea). The Kronshlot, also built for the North-West region, will operate at the ports of Ust-Luga and Saint-Petersburg as well as at Kaliningrad, when necessary. The Kadosh, the final TSHD 1000, will work at the Black Sea Basin – at the ports of Tuapse, Kavkaz and Novorossiysk.

It should be noted that the ships have an optimal design for operation in water areas and at approach channels of Russian seaports. Trailing suction hopper dredgers of TSHD 1000 design have a hopper capacity of 1,000 m3. A trailing pipe works at a maximum dredging depth of -20 metres. The TSHD 1000 vessels combine the functions of a suction dredger and a hopper barge which makes them multi-functional and contributes to their economic efficiency.

The TSHD 1000 series was built under the technical supervision of Russian Maritime Register of Shipping (RS).

“The project meets the cutting-edge requirements for designing of such vessels and for dredging equipment involved, offers numerous innovative solutions allowing for optimization of dredging operations and minimization of operational and maintenance costs. The vessels were designed by Damen (Netherlands), one of the largest shipbuilders in the world. The Register has been cooperating with the company for more than 15 years, said Sergei Shishkin, Head of RS Classification Division.

To be cotinued?

Since Rosmorport has acquired the design from Damen and Krasnoye Sormovo has succeeded in its implementation, we can speak about the maximum transfer of competence during the series construction.

“The experience of building dredgers of Damen design shows that there are no challenges we cannot meet. The main task now is to ensure continuous operation of the dredgers we have built for the benefit of the customer. This will let assess our efforts and will let us hope for more orders, said Nikolai Zharkov, Director General of Krasnoye Sormovo shipyard.

According to Sergei Shishkin, Krasnoye Sormovo is among the leaders in Russian shipbuilding today.

“It is enough to say that the shipyard has built about a hundred commercial ships of different projects over the recent 15 years. Some tankers built here under the technical supervision of RS are in the list of Significant Ships of RINA. All vessels built at the shipyard meet international requirements on safe navigation and environment protection. Their equipment is manufactured by the industry leaders. The shipyard is currently mastering new lines of products with RS participation, – said Sergei Shishkin. – After a 50-years long period, the shipyard has resumed construction of dredging ships. Nowadays, such vessels are in high demand. They are intended for maintenance of designed depth and for further deepening of fairways, canals, anchorage zones, water areas of seaports and approaches to them.”

Meanwhile, order backlog of Krasnoye Sormovo shipyard for 2017 is only 30% full, the shipyard needs the orders for at least three vessels.

However, the decision on possible continuation of the series can be made in at least a half of a year, says Rosmorport.

Ready to dredge?

Meanwhile, more vessels of this kind are needed as the scope of dredging works at water areas of Russia in 2017 will remain at the level of 2016.

“The scope of maintenance dredging in 2017 is preliminary expected at some 10-12 mln cbm. This year we have done the bulk of works at port Sabetta with about 15 mln cbm remaining there. The works in Sabetta will be completed in 2017,” said Andrei Lavrishchev, Executive Director of FSUE Rosmorport.

The scope of maintenance dredging is to exceed 10 mln cbm in 2016 with almost 20 mln cbm of material dredged in Sabetta.

It should be noted that about a half of dredging works is performed by the fleet of FSUE Rosmorport. By the end of 2016, dredging fleet of Rosmorport will number about 25 vessels.

Source: PortNews