Severnaya Verf, a division of Russia's state-owned United Shipbuilding Corporation, has confirmed that it will switch to the hull block assembly shipbuilding method after the completion of upgrades at its yard in Saint Petersburg.
Through this approach, entire blocks weighing up to 900 tons will be pre-assembled and painted and then integrated with each other to form a ship's hull, an approach that the company expects will help reduce construction times.
Vasily Volegov, Acting General Director of Severnaya Verf, said that the new approach will deliver, "quality, speed and scale."
To this end, Severnaya Verf's shipyard will be modernised through the establishment of dedicated facilities. These will include a 100-metre-high indoor dry dock with cranes that are each capable of lifting up to 1,000 tons, a warehouse, and painting areas.
Severnaya Verf expects that the upgraded Saint Petersburg facilities will enable it to complete up to eleven large shipbuilding projects each year. These will include Aframax tankers, LNG carriers, container vessels, bulk carriers, and research ships.
The company said that the modernisation will be undertaken without interrupting in its current vessel construction projects.