Steel Delivered to Build Russia’s New Icebreakers

OJSC Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) has been selected as the key steel supplier in the construction of nuclear icebreakers (Project 22220) at the Baltic Shipyard, part of United Shipbuilding Corporation. A 60MW universal nuclear icebreaker known as Arctic – Project 22220’s leading ship – is currently under construction at the shipyard.

 

The icebreaker’s displacement will amount to up to 33.5 thousand metric tons, and it will reach speeds of up to 22 knots in open water. This new generation of icebreaker will be equipped with two nuclear reactors, each with a thermal capacity of 175 MW. It will also be able to break ice of up to three meters thick, opening up the Northern Sea Route virtually all year round, and enabling the delivery of hydrocarbons from their northernmost deposits. The icebreaker’s sea trial is scheduled for 2017.

 

In May 2015, construction of Project 22220’s first series-produced icebreaker, Siberia, began at the Baltic Shipyard. Construction of the world’s largest multifunctional diesel-electric 25MW icebreaker (Project 22600), named Victor Chernomyrdin, is also underway. MMK has provided steel for these ships as well.

 

Furthermore, work on a diesel-electric icebreaker (Aker ARC 130 А) has commenced at the Vyborg Shipyard, also part of United Shipbuilding Corporation. MMK is among the key metal suppliers for this ship.

 

There are plans to commission another two icebreakers in 2017. Both of these 22MW ships will be able to break ice of up to two meters thick and continuously operate at temperatures as low as -50 degrees Celsius. The icebreakers will be operated at the Novoport deposit’s Arctic terminal in the Yamal peninsula.

 

In 2011, United Shipbuilding Corporation and MMK signed a memorandum on strategic cooperation. The two companies agreed to develop their scientific and technological cooperation on existing and new shipbuilding products, as well as to streamline the supply chain for delivery of MMK metal to USP facilities.

 

MMK accounts for up to 50 percent of all metal supplies to the Russian shipbuilding industry. In 2014, MMK shipped 78,000 metric tons of metal to domestic ship builders, up 37.2 percent year-on-year. Shipbuilding steel, produced at Mill 5000, is certified by Lloyd’s Register, Bureau Veritas of France, the American Bureau of Shipping, Det Norske Veritas in Norway and Germanischer Lloyd, as well as the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping and the Russian River Register.