USC keeping plans for joint venture with Saipem
MOSCOW. April 12 (Interfax) - OJSC United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) is sticking with plans for the creation of a joint venture with the Italian company Saipem to design vessels for continental shelf operations.
Deputy Russian Industry and Trade Minister and member of the USC board of directors Denis Manturov told Interfax the company plans to sign the agreement and that Industry and Trade Minister Viktor Khristenko "was in Italy on this matter" at the beginning of April. As reported, USC and Saipem have signed a memorandum on the joint venture's creation requiring the board of directors' approval.
This enterprise will be designing ships, in particular, for the Shtokman gas condensate field. The joint venture will have no production assets of its own.
USC also might acquire 20.4% of the stock in construction bureau Aker Arctic Technology Inc., which is part of STX Europe, before the end of this year. "The option is still valid, but we have a timeframe in which to exercise that option. We have time for the purchase," Manturov said.
USC received the right to buy 20.4% of the stock in the construction bureau, which specializes in the building of icebreaker class vessels, in the context of the purchase of 50% of STX Helsinki Shipyard Oy via a joint venture with STX Finland. OJSC Sovcomflot has placed an order for two icebreakers.
United Shipbuilding Corporation already has a number of joint ventures with foreign partners, but none of them are operating. The shipyard Zvezda-DSME (a JV with Daewoo Shipbuilding Maritime & Engineering) is only now being built, but USC promises that its first metal-working shop will be launched this spring.
The fate of another JV, Vostok-Raffles (with the Chinese-Singaporean Yantai-Raffles) is not clear yet because of problems with selecting the location for the plant.
