FSUE “Rosmorport” acted as the general partner of the VI International Hydraulic Engineering Structures and Dredging Congress, which is being held by the information and analytical agency "Portnews" at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation on February 15-16, 2023.

The company provided promotional and souvenir products and information materials which were included in the participant's portfolio. In particular, especially for the congress FSUE “Rosmorport” prepared a notebook with information about the dredging activities of the enterprise.

On the first day of the congress, Vasily Strugov, Deputy Director General for the Fleet, and Andrey Boldorev, Head of the Investment and Strategic Development Department, made reports on the results of the port infrastructure and the dredging fleet development in 2022 and on the further plans.

According to the results of 2022, the volume of transshipment in seaports increased by 0.7% compared to the results of 2021 and amounted to 841.7 million tons.

The increase in the capacity of Russian seaports amounted to about 36.6 million tons due to the construction of a specialized general-use coal transshipment complex in the area of Cape Otkryty in Primorsky Krai with a capacity of 4.5 million tons; a marine terminal in the area of the Portovaya compressor station in the seaport of Vysotsk (1.6 million tons); a Taman bulk cargo terminal in the seaport of Taman (25 million tons); marine transshipment complex of liquefied natural gas in the Kamchatka Territory (5.4 million tons). Also last year, the construction of a ferry and passenger berth on the left bank of the Anadyr estuary in the village of Ugolny Kopi was completed in order to maintain current capacities.

Andrey Boldorev stressed that a large number of measures for the development of port infrastructure in the Arctic, Baltic, Far Eastern, Volga-Caspian and Azov-Black Sea basins for the future up to 2030 are currently at various stages of implementation.

“In 2022, FSUE “Rosmorport” carried out dredging operations at 8 facilities of the seaport infrastructure,” said Andrey Boldorev. “According to the results of the work carried out, 14.2 million cubic meters of soil were extracted. In addition, the enterprise carried out work on repair digging and dredging in the amount of 9 million cubic meters. At the same time, the Volga-Caspian Sea shipping Channel accounted for about 5 million cubic meters, and the Kaliningrad Sea Canal – 1.1 million cubic meters. The total volume of dredging operations in 2022 amounted to 23.2 million cubic meters”.

Dredging operations in the amount of 23.9 million cubic meters are planned for 2023, including 16.6 million cubic meters of soil which is planned to be extracted during repair digging and dredging. The main volume of repair digging and dredging will still fall on the Volga-Caspian Sea Shipping Channel (12 million cubic meters) and the Kaliningrad Sea Channel (1.3 million cubic meters).

Vasily Strugov, in turn, noted that due to the withdrawal of large foreign companies of the “Big Four” (Van Oord, Boscalis, Jan de Nul, Deme) from the market in 2022, FSUE “Rosmorport” is currently the largest Russian operator of the marine dredging fleet. The dredging fleet of the enterprise includes 40 vessels, excluding the auxiliary fleet.

“The annual volume of dredging works is growing, primarily due to the need to ensure a passing draft at the VCSSC up to 4.5 m in 2023, and to perform repair digging and dredging in Bechevinskaya Bay, Sukhodol Bay from 2024,” stated Vasily Strugov. “This growth causes the need to expand the dredging fleet of our company. We are planning not only to attract additional third-party fleet, but also to update our own.”

Currently, by FSUE “Rosmorport” order, a non-self-propelled milling dredger is being built for the Astrakhan branch to work at VCSSC with an annual capacity of 1 million cubic meters. It is expected that the vessel will be transferred to the enterprise at the end of 2023.

The plans of FSUE “Rosmorport” are to begin the development of a project of a shallow-seated self-draining dredger for shallow areas of the Caspian and Azov Seas in 2023. The main principal characteristics of the future dredger are the draft (approximately 3.5 m) and cargo capacity (1,000 cubic meters). Construction is scheduled to begin in 2025.

The enterprise also expects that during the closure of navigation on the Northern Sea Route (November–June), new vessels of the dredging fleet of Rosatom State Corporation can be used at the facilities of FSUE “Rosmorport” if they have characteristics suitable for operation in ice-free seaports of Russia.

For reference:

FSUE “Rosmorport” has been supporting the International Forum of Dredging Companies for 10 years, which since 2018, having expanded the scope of discussions due to hydrotechnical topics, has been held in the status of a congress. Every year this event gathers more than 400 delegates – the largest customers and successful performers of underwater technical works. About 30 employees of the company, including its branches, attend various events within the framework of the congress in person.