Arktika icebreaker may be delivered to customer in 2019 - United Shipbuilding Corporation head
VLADIVOSTOK. Sept 12 (Interfax) - The Baltiysky Zavod (Baltic Shipyard), a leading Russian shipbuilding company, plans to transfer the Arktika icebreaker to the customer in 2019, United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) head Alexei Rakhmanov said.
"The delay is solely because of the late delivery of the steam-turbine plants. Our partners have disrupted the deadlines cleared with the government by another four months. Now the Baltiysky Zavod's heroism should ensure that the icebreaker is commissioned in 2019. I can't tell you the exact time," Rakhmanov told Interfax at the Eastern Economic Forum on Wednesday.
Media reported earlier that the icebreaker could be commissioned only in 2020.
The Project 22220 multipurpose nuclear icebreakers will be able to break up to three-meter thick ice to convoy caravans of ships in Arctic conditions. They will be used to escort vessels carrying hydrocarbons from mineral fields of the Yamal and Gydan Peninsulas and the Kara Sea shelf to Asia Pacific markets.