FSUE “Rosmorport” traditionally acted as the general partner of the VIII Hydraulic Engineering Structures and Dredging International Congress which was held in Moscow at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation on February 20-21. The business event was organized by PortNews information and analytical agency.

FSUE “Rosmorport” traditionally prepared a wide range of branded promotional gifts for the guests and participants of the event: collectible models of the world's largest non-nuclear icebreaker Viktor Chernomyrdin, car paste boards, diaries, desktop and wall calendars of unique design.

Detailed information about the activities of the enterprise, the largest owner of the dredging fleet in Russia, was presented in an information notebook, which could be viewed as part of a mobile exhibition on the sidelines of the congress.

The first day of the congress opened with the plenary session “State policy in the field of hydraulic engineering and dredging”. Its participants discussed the development of Russia's port infrastructure, dredging in the Astrakhan region to ensure the operation of the North-South international transport corridor and on the Northern Sea Route, technical condition of Russia's inland waterways, provision of a dredging fleet and other issues.

Elena Khokhlova, Deputy Head of the Production Department of the Capital Construction and Repair Department, made a report on the results of the development of the port infrastructure and the dredging fleet of FSUE “Rosmorport” in 2024 and plans for the future.

In 2024, FSUE “Rosmorport” provided repair dredging in the amount of 11 million cubic meters, of which more than 7 million cubic meters were in the Volga-Caspian Sea Shipping Canal. Last year, dredging operations were also carried out in the seaport of Arkhangelsk, the Azov-Don Sea Canal, the Taganrog Approach Canal and other facilities. The share of repair dredging performed by the enterprise’s own dredging equipment amounted to 56%.

In 2024, dredging was also carried out as part of the stages of a number of investment projects. The work was carried out in the seaport of Ust-Luga: at the facilities of the Ust-Luga universal trading terminal and the Ultramar terminal. In Novorossiysk, work was carried out on the reconstruction of the water area of the KSK grain terminal.

“In 2025, repair dredging is planned in the amount of 13.1 million cubic meters. Most of the work will again be carried out on the Volga-Caspian Sea Shipping Canal, which is 7.3 million cubic meters. 4.6 million cubic meters are planned for investment projects. Work will continue in the Baltic and Azov-Black Sea basins,” Elena Khokhlova said.

FSUE "Rosmorport" is actively replenishing its dredging fleet. According to the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping, over half of the total number of dredgers in the country are vessels of the enterprise, namely 20 out of 35 units.

In 2024, the enterprise expanded its group with the Nikolai Rusanov non-self-propelled milling dredger, the lead vessel of a series of three dredgers being built by Stroyliderplus LLC for FSUE “Rosmorport”. The vessels are planned to be used on the Volga-Caspian Sea Shipping Canal and in the waters of the seaports of Astrakhan and Olya. The work on the production of such vessels continues this year. It should be noted that dredgers of this class are characterized by sufficiently high performance, high engine power and the possibility of using a pulp pipeline with a diameter of up to 800 mm.

Elena Khokhlova noted that pricing and environmental aspects, namely the need to develop design documentation and obtain the results of an environmental assessment, play a significant role in dredging operations.

During the dredging process, production, environmental and fisheries monitoring is carried out in cases where work must be carried out during the period of spawning restrictions. Compensation for damage to aquatic biological resources is an important area of the enterprise's activity as well. In 2024, FSUE “Rosmorport” released more than 1 million specimens of juveniles of various fish species.

For reference:

FSUE “Rosmorport” has been supporting the International Forum of Dredging Companies for more than 10 years. Since 2018, expanding the scope of discussions to include hydraulic engineering topics, the event has been held as a congress. Every year, the congress gathers over 400 delegates, who are the biggest customers and successful performers of underwater technical works.

In 2025, the main topics of the meetings are the implementation of the import substitution program for underwater engineering works in hydraulic engineering, new engineering solutions for industry science, opportunities to attract government financing and preferential loans to the industry, as well as supervision of the implementation of major infrastructure projects.