The cost of the icebreaker "Viktor Chernomyrdin" increased by 1.5 times

The cost of the world's largest non-nuclear icebreaker has reached 12 billion rubles.
17.07.2019
Vedomosti
Origin source
The Viktor Chernomyrdin icebreaker under construction since 2011 will be transferred to FSUE “Rosmorport” (escorts ships along the Northern Sea Route) in December 2019. Such an agreement was reached in early July at a meeting of the head of Rosmorrechflot, Yuri Tsvetkov and the President of the United State Shipbuilding Corporation ( USC) Alexei Rakhmanov. The information was confirmed by the representative of the USC and the Deputy General Director of “Rosmorport” Vasily Strugov. This diesel-electric icebreaker is the largest non-nuclear icebreaker in the world, its length is 147 m, width is 29 m, navigation autonomy is 60 days, power plant capacity is 25 MW. He will be able to continuously move in ice up to 2 m thick and perform icebreaking work in ice up to 3 m.

The construction contract for Viktor Chernomyrdin was concluded in 2011, when it was scheduled for delivery to the customer in December 2015. Due to errors in the initial design, the deadlines shifted. Initially, the icebreaker was built at the Baltic Shipyard, starting from autumn 2017, it is being completed at the Admiralty Shipyards (both companies are part of the USC), according to the existing contract, the ship should be handed over to the customer no later than June 25, 2019. In November 2018 at Viktor Chernomyrdin an explosion of combustible vapors occurred, the wiring burned down in a fire, the boiler control system was damaged. The fire caused losses of about 150 million rubles. and delayed construction for 3-4 months, said Rakhmanov.

During the years of construction, the icebreaker rose sharply. USC claims that if the original price of the contract is maintained, its loss will amount to 4 billion rubles, said two people close to the Ministry of Transport. The cost of the contract signed in 2011 was 7.95 billion rubles. At the same time, in 2017, the USC received an additional 700 million rubles from the government on Viktor Chernomyrdin. to mitigate the effect of the devaluation of the ruble, Kommersant reported. That is, the construction will cost USC at least 12 billion rubles, summarizes one of the interlocutors.

“12 billion rubles. - This is the desire of the USC, but you can count more, because the ship is still under construction, ”said another person close to the Ministry of Transport. “The actual costs exceed the value of the contract for a variety of reasons. We are considering and working on various options for the compensation of additional costs. Part of the costs we were previously compensated, ”said the representative of USC.

“Despite the delayed construction deadlines, there is a firm price of a state contract for 7.95 billion rubles. We are not working to increase it, ”said the general director of Rosmorport, Andrei Lavrishchev. An increase in the value of the contract has not yet occurred, confirms the representative of the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

“The holding has not yet applied to the government for compensation of additional costs, it is advisable to do this after the delivery of the vessel,” says a person close to the Ministry of Transport. But the USC has already asked the government to postpone the deadlines, because the deadlines are again disrupted and Rosmorport may demand payment of fines, the source adds. If Viktor Chernomyrdin is handed over at the end of December (i.e., half a year behind), then a fine only for disrupting the change can amount to 350 million rubles, follows from the contract for the completion of the icebreaker. And there may be fines for disrupting the timing of individual works.

At the same time, according to Lavrishchev, the ice tests of “Viktor Chernomyrdin” will be held only in March-April 2020 in the Kara Sea - the contract allows for testing after the ship is handed over to the customer.

“In a good way, ice tests must be carried out before the icebreaker is handed over, the manufacturer conducts them. In this case, the customer, taking the icebreaker to the test, will meet the USC. But the shipyard was objectively out of date due to the fire, we had to wait for the re-ordered imported equipment, ”says the director-general of the Infoline-analytics agency Mikhail Burmistrov. Appearances of Viktor Chernomyrdin have been waiting for a long time, it should replace the Yermak icebreaker operating since 1974, including on the Northern Sea Route, adds Burmistrov.

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