Rosatomflot Icebreakers Steered 331 Ships

Rosatomflot (FSUE Atomflot), Russian company that maintains the world's only fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers, said that its nuclear icebreakers steered 331 ships of a total gross capacity 12.7 mln tons. As compared to 2017, the capacity of steered ships increased by 5 mln tons.

The Rosatom group company said in a press release that with that, the number of steering operations decreased (last year it was 493 ships) due to completion of the active phase of construction in the port of Sabetta and reduction of flow of vessels carrying cargoes for construction.

Besides, as liquefied natural gas shipments from Sabetta started by LNG tankers of Yamalmax class, the gross capacity of ships steered by icebreakers has increased.

Roatomflot continues demonstrating the positive dynamics in key indicators such as proceeds and labor productivity. Following the 2018 results, the company’s proceeds were RUB 6,806 mln (in 2017 – RUB 6,622 mln). Labor productivity increased from 3,669 thousand RUB/man in 2017 to 3,802 thousand RUB/man in 2018.

In 2018 FSUE Atomflot together with OKBM Afrikantov continued planned works to extend residual service life of nuclear icebreakers’ nuclear power installations and extend lifetime of nuclear maintenance vessels.  

In 2018 the company has started work in the framework of the export contract under the project “Yamal LNG”. The work has been started on the second natural gas project in Gydan Peninsula. These key events determine workload of Rosatomflot for the coming 30-40 years.

Acting General Director of FSUE Atomflot Mustafa Kashka commented: “Successful implementation of largest national projects in the Arctic depends in many respects on efficient operation of the nuclear icebreaker fleet. In this regard, the decision made to build the third and fourth series universal nuclear icebreakers as well as the icebreaker Leader is the determining decision for the company and entire Northern Sea Route development.”

In October 2018 in Saint-Petersburg the Arctic Marine Competence Center was inaugurated for training of UNA crews on the initiative and with participation of FSUE Atomflot. It was opened at the facilities of the Admiral Makarov State University of Maritime and Inland Shipping.