Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex (russian: Судостроительный комплекс «Звезда») is a Russian

shipbuilding Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to befor ...

company that operates the country's largest

shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...

in the town of

Bolshoy Kamen Bolshoy Kamen ( rus, Большой Камень, p=bɐlʲˈʂoj ˈkamʲɪnʲ, lit. ''large stone'') is a town in the south of Primorsky Krai, Russia, located on the opposite side of the Ussuri Bay as seen from Lazurnaya Bay. The town was closed ...

in the

Russian Far East The Russian Far East (russian: Дальний Восток России, r=Dal'niy Vostok Rossii, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in Northeast Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asian continent; and is admini ...

. Established in 2015 by a consortium of investors led by the Russian oil company

Rosneft PJSC Rosneft Oil Company ( stylized as ROSNEFT) is a Russian Vertical integration, integrated energy company headquartered in Moscow. Rosneft specializes in the exploration, Extraction of petroleum, extraction, production, refining, Petroleum t ...

, the company has since attracted a large number of orders for

oil tanker An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk transport of oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined crud ...

LNG carrier An LNG carrier is a tank ship designed for transporting liquefied natural gas (LNG). History The first LNG carrier ''Methane Pioneer'' () carrying , classed by Bureau Veritas, left the Calcasieu River on the Louisiana Gulf coast on 25 January ...

s and

icebreaker An icebreaker is a special-purpose ship or boat designed to move and navigate through ice-covered waters, and provide safe waterways for other boats and ships. Although the term usually refers to ice-breaking ships, it may also refer to smaller ...

Description

The main production facilities at Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex, built at and around the site of the old Zvezda Shipyard, include a

graving dock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

and a horizontal

slipway A slipway, also known as boat ramp or launch or boat deployer, is a ramp on the shore by which ships or boats can be moved to and from the water. They are used for building and repairing ships and boats, and for launching and retrieving small ...

served by a 40,000-tonne floating transfer dock capable of launching hulls. Both production lines are served by 1200-tonne

gantry crane A gantry crane is a crane built atop a gantry, which is a structure used to straddle an object or workspace. They can range from enormous "full" gantry cranes, capable of lifting some of the heaviest loads in the world, to small shop cranes, us ...

s as well as numerous smaller cranes.

History

At the end of the Cold War, the Zvezda shipyard was used to decommission Soviet nuclear submarines, with funding and support from the US and Canada under the

Nunn–Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction As the collapse of the Soviet Union appeared imminent, the United States and their NATO allies grew concerned of the risk of nuclear weapons held in the Republics of the Soviet Union, Soviet republics falling into enemy hands. The Cooperative Thr ...

initiative. Following the decommissioning work, there were plans to expand and redevelop the shipyard to construct larger new ships. Work on the latest attempt at expansion began in 2009; the Russian government has criticised delays and threatened to hand control of the project to third parties, perhaps including Rosneft and Gazprom. In the longer term, the shipyard may be opened up to foreign investors as part of a broader plan to make the Russian shipbuilding industry capable of competing with shipbuilders in other countries. When the expansion is complete, the shipyard would be able to build ships up to 360m and 250,000dwt. As of 2017, the Zvezda shipyard has orders for only 14 vessels, mostly from

, one of the owners. In the middle of 2018, the shipyard's order book amounted to 118 vessels, including orders from Rosneft for 26 vessels, 4 vessels are in the process of construction. In September 2018, the first tanker of the

Aframax An Aframax vessel is an oil tanker with a deadweight between 80,000 and 120,000 metric tonnes. The term is based on the Average Freight Rate Assessment (AFRA), a tanker rate system created in 1954 by Shell Oil to standardize shipping contract t ...

class was laid. Also in September, an agreement was signed with

Samsung Heavy Industries Samsung Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. (Korean: 삼성중공업) is one of the largest shipbuilders in the world and one of the "Big Three" shipbuilders of South Korea (including Hyundai and Daewoo). Geoje (in Gyeongsangnam-do) is one of the largest ...

on the transfer of competencies in the construction of tankers. Zvezda has cooperation with Samho (Hyundai) HI Mokpo DSME Samsung and Hyundai HI . In September 2020 an order for 10 new large (174,000 cbm capacity) LNG gas tankers was placed with Zvezda shipyard by a joint venture between the Russian companies

Novatek Novatek (russian: ПАО «НОВАТЭК», , ) is Russia's second-largest natural gas producer (behind Gazprom), and the seventh-largest publicly traded company globally by natural gas production volume. The company was originally known as OAO F ...

and

Sovcomflot Sovcomflot (russian: ПАО «Совкомфлот», ПАО «Современный коммерческий флот», , Modern Commercial Fleet). Sovcomflot is Russia's largest shipping company, and one of the global leaders in the maritime ...

to serve the future Artic LNG 2 project on the

Gyda Peninsula The Gyda Peninsula () is a geographical feature of the Siberian coast in the Kara Sea. It takes its name from the river Gyda, that flows on the peninsula. It is roughly 400 km long and 360 km wide. This wide peninsula lies between t ...

List of ships built or on order

References

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Description

History

List of ships built or on order

See also

References