Daewoo signs JV with Russia
Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) has formed a joint venture with Russia's United Shipbuilding Company to build ships in Russia's Far East.
Such joint ventures are a boon for Russia's struggling shipbuilding industry, which has been championed by prime minister Vladimir Putin but which customers say uses out of date equipment and takes twice as long to build to build a vessel as its South Korean rivals.
DSME ceo Nam Sang-Tae said the joint venture, Zvezda DSME, would build icebreaker supply ships, drilling installations and tankers for Russian energy companies.
The South Korean company also signed a letter of intent to build two icebreaker supply ships, worth $200 million, on behalf of the new joint venture for Exxon Neftegas Limited, a stakeholder in the Sakhalin-1 oil project and the Russian affiliate of Exxon Mobil. Sergei Frank, chief executive of Sovcomflot, said the Russian shipping company plans to order 10 Aframax tankers from the newly created joint venture.
