The Ukrainian Danube Shipping Company (Izmail, Odessa region) is in talks with the Nibulon company (Nikolayev) on construction barges at the Kilia shipyard, which is a division of the Ukrainian Danube Shipping Company, This was announced by the shipping company’s acting Board Chairman Dmytro Barinov, the press service of the company said.
In addition, according to Barinov, the shipping company intends to participate in a tender for repair of tugs, which the Administration Seaports of Ukraine is expected to announce soon.
Barinov described launch and resumption of operation at the Kilia shipyard as a priority. "The shipyard is currently surviving on subsidies from the Ukrainian Danube Shipping Company. The Kilia shipyard is unique from a technological point of view. All the conditions necessary for repair and construction of a fleet from scratch and turnkey exist there,” he stressed. At the same time, he added that the water depth at the Kilia shipyard (2.2 meters) is a constraining factor that limits the range of opportunities for the enterprise.
According to Barinov, another serious problem is the incompletion of the Captain Stolbovsky motor ship. Construction of this vessel began at the Kilia shipyard in 2004. The government allocated UAH 32 million for this project in the period of 2005-2006, but funding for it was frozen a few years later.
As reported, the to available information shows that the profit of the Kilia shipyard exceeded UAH 3 million in 2012, when it produced goods worth UAH 24 million. In early 2014, the previous head of the Ukrainian Danube Shipping Company, Oleksandr Dolhov, proposed reviving the construction of a fleet at the Kilia shipyard for the needs of the industry. Since Ukraine attained independence, 155 ship hulls and 67 docking facilities have been built and more than 1,100 units of fleet have been repaired at the shipyard.
